The essay I wrote at 16:
One of the most debated questions is, “What is the purpose of life?” The dictionary tells us that it means an organism is living. However, I often ask myself ‘What does it truly mean to be living?’ I often find myself stressing about fulfilling my life and making it purposeful. Society sets standards for religion, the beliefs, the relationship status, personalities, careers, and the amount of money that is desirable. However, every single individual is different and has their own desires. The word Homonyms means that one word that is spelled or pronounced the same way, has two different meanings. For example, there are simple words such as: can, bear, may, pen, bark, mean, etc. This word, like many others, meant nothing to me. As I thought more about the meaning, I realized that it applied to multiple words. The word ‘love’ can be perceived differently by different individuals. The phrase “Thank You” has a different significance to others. This is because one’s experience, no matter how big or small, is effective to who they become, which will essentially affect who others become.
Society has become an outlet to blame others for the pressure and hardships that one takes. However, we are a part of the society that we blame. Every single person has the chance to change others without even realizing it. Because none of us are the same, no one ever truly understands what one is thinking, feeling, etc. All that can be judged by others is how you present yourself and how one’s past experiences have built how they perceive certain movements, words, and actions. However, another’s experience would lead to a different conclusion of how another is feeling, resulting in a different reaction and comforting methods. Our 5 senses are shared among all people of society. In theory, we all hear, taste, see, feel and smell the same things, but we are all perceiving it a different way. I might gag on a bite of peas because of a memory from when I was 8 years old, but my friends may embrace the taste with joy. How one’s past experiences, and how they reacted or felt affects their perception of others’ situations. Although the situations may not be the same, humans tend to treat how they would want to be treated.
Initially, as we were kids, our parents told us to, “Treat others the way you would want to be treated.” This is an unconsciously selfish mindset that we have engraved into our brains. Comparing another’s situation to your own, is lessening the importance of another’s situation. Because we don’t have the mindset of another person, we say to them what we would want to be said to us, based on our own feelings. For example, My older sister’s love language is ‘acts of service.’ She likes to be offered help without actually accepting it. Last summer, we stayed in an airbnb a block away from the beach. We would all take turns carrying the heavy wagon back and forth. I was carrying the wagon when she kept asking if I wanted her to carry it and swore she wouldn’t mind. I would refuse and continue. A few days later she explained to me how she hates to carry the wagon and so on. This is when it occurred to me that the things that one does, they tend to do because they consciously or subconsciously wish that someone would have done the same for them. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just an observation and key component to how a human mind works. Because I have spent a lot of time with my sister, I was able to recognize what she wanted, which was help. The more time you spend with someone, the easier it is to perceive their emotions and recognize how they are feeling. Furthermore, this is when “treat others how you would want to be treated.” is the most effective. That is because you have had a lot of the same experiences. Although these experiences may have not been felt in the same way, they are still effective to mental growth, in the same general direction. This leads to why humans have different comforting styles based on what they think they perceive and what they relate to.
Consider this analogy. I went to the store, and on my way home, I decided to take a road I had not been on. I was driving down the road and saw what looked like an oil stain in the middle of the road. It didn’t look too harmless and seemed like a normal thing. In my mind, it was just a stain in the middle of a big road. There was a lot of other stuff to focus on, so I dismissed it. To my right, a road was coming up, I was thinking about taking the road but instead continued on the one I was on. As I got closer to the oil stain, I could see that it was raised up off the ground and had an odd shape, but nothing too serious. The brown, now “thing” made me a little more cautious, but was still treated as “Not my problem,” just a bump in the road. I see another road to my left, and consider turning down it, but decide against it. As I got closer and closer, the concern of what the brown “thing” was raised in me more and more. I came 10 feet from the brown “thing” and now could see it was a bird. Still dismissive, I yelled out the window “get out of here.” I got 5 feet closer to the bird and could now see that he had something little sticking out of him. I put my car in park, turned my hazards on because now I could see that the “oil stain” in the middle of a big road needed help. As I got closer to the bird, I saw that he had gotten barbed wire stuck into the side of him. He wasn’t the same color as I had perceived from afar, and the little thing sticking out of him was now a big thing.
What seemed like just a few miles back, I was sitting on a boardwalk on vacation. A mix of live music, little kids laughing, the smell of burnt burgers, and freshly caught fish was engraved into my brain; but not because of the amazing smell, sound, or view. All of the sensory details, I wouldn’t have been able to remember, if it weren’t for the British couple that was sitting a few benches away from me. They had caught a precious bird while fishing, one much like the one laying in front of me; the line had gotten stuck in the side of his neck. This had happened to them before and knew exactly how to help him. The wife explained to a guy sitting beside them that a bird’s nostrils are in its throat. So in order to help the bird harmfree, you had to stick your fingers in his beak to open his airway while you pulled out the hook. This experience, that was not my original experience but just my perception, had led me to save this bird in the middle of the road. The stops I had made previously on this road had led me to the knowledge that helped me, to help this precious “oil stain” in the middle of the road. If I had simply decided to turn down a different road, or not decided to take a new road home, my life would be as meaningless as the bird’s life would have become.
Perceiving from afar is often misleading and dismissive. Perceiving from relatively close, brings up caution and wonder. But straight on perception gives you insight to the feelings of others. There is one perception that will never be reached, and that is the bird’s perception. I don’t know what this bird was seeing or hearing, all I knew was that, if I was a bird I would want someone to help me. Subconsciously or consciously, I had remembered a time where someone had not taken the long way home. The act I did was selfish but somehow pure. This is true in life, I believe that humans often don’t have the right intentions, but affect others in ways they can’t comprehend. Whether making fun of someone drives them to put in the work to become the next Micheal Jordan; or complimenting someone’s shirt helps them to pursue their life long dream of fashion. We all have the chance to make a difference, just by living our own lives.
Essentially, the meaning of life is whatever you want it to be. My meaning of life can and will be different from others. One thing we all have in common is that we have the chance to affect others. Blocking out, or denying a part of your life is denying yourself. Every experience that is had, is effective to you, that helps you to affect others. We are all connected by society, bad and good. Understanding the differences and similarities among the people who make up society could help you fulfill your life’s meaning. One of the most beautiful things about life is the contradictory of the uniqueness and the alikeness between two people. Take advantage of the experiences that have made you who you are, and never deny yourself. After all, humans are selfish but pure.
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