I've got one. Have you?


It makes me so incredibly sad to hear when people say that they don't know what they'll do with themselves after finishing school. Not because I'm being condescending; some of them really sound lost and sad that they don't know what purpose their life should have, aside from the normal, "get a job, get married, have kids" set of plans. It's really bizarre; either I have insane friends who are just like me, or everyone feels this to an extent- but whenever I get into deep conversations like this with my friends, they all express some sentiment of being a burden, or insignificant. Well, my solution to this has always been having a purpose that I'll dedicate myself to, a purpose that I believe in and won't regret trying to aid.

I've known what I wanted to do with my life as far back as I can remember having a personality. (I have this skewed view that babies don't count as people since they haven't developed a full personality yet). Anyway, I wanted to become a veterinarian. Currently, nearing the end of high school, I've decided to go more into natural resource management & policy, so it's more of an environmental conservation view (I'd like to think that following this course will have a bigger impact on protecting animals). I don't know what the future holds for me, but I do know that I'll end up doing SOMETHING for nature, job-wise... I don't care if I earn a low wage. Right now, and just as I have believed for practically all of my life, I'm only concerned with doing "the right thing"- which for me, is taking care of the biodiversity on this planet. I'll suffer physical hardships, and hardships of a not so great income, gladly.

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed... I'm not the best student, definately not the brightest... I don't know how much a difference I'm going to make... and meanwhile, I'm taking up my parents' time and money, using up resources... my parents don't love or even like each other. They're only together in marriage for my sake-- if I wasn't here anymore, they could split up and perhaps find happier lives... So even if I give people or other living things (I'm thinking about my pets) happiness, the bad effects I have sort of cancel them out, and scarily, might even overpower them... To "solve this", I could kill myself, but I think of it as the coward's way out. It's harder to try than to slip back from the scene.

I think about life all the time. I can't stop being in awe of it and the gift of consciousness we have. For that reason, I can't really take a simpler approach of just "living life to its fullest". I feel that I, and all of us, really have responsibilities and obligations while we live. And that we should have a sort of purpose...

How do you feel about life? Do you feel like you need a purpose to it? Or are you content with going on with the flow?


[Just realized that this could possibly go in "general discussion". xD The boundary between the two is a bit blurry for me.]

Interesting subject. I will awnser honestly.

In this life, I am insegnificate. There is nothing abnormal about me, and there is nothing incredeble about any one else. We all live for about 80 years or so and then decay in the ground. We are all mere hulls of flesh that has a soul purpose to rot and decay upon the earth. Yes, maybe oneday a baby will be born that will be the next step in our eveolutionary process, but still, thats one person, and even so, It wont be me, or anyone else. Every person on this site, doe snot matter. we all die, and then we are forgotte. So why even bother to make a mark on Society? Maybe one in a million humans might become a pimple on the ass of society? Ah well, end Rant.

My life has purpose, but I also go with the flow. I have floated very far away from what was once my dream (archeology) but I'm very happy with the way my life has turned out. I now work for a non profit organization who helps out people who want to put on conventions or put anime clubs together. I'm a mom as well, that is my most important job. My children will be fully capable of anything they set their minds to! They are my real contribution to this planet.

I think you do need a purpose. Actually... I don't really think you could just 'go with the flow' as some people say.
Because, well... It's kinda scary... >____>


Anyways, my purpose, in the future, will be finishing school and then teaching English in Japan. `Tis going to be my goal. ^___~

How do you feel about life?
I feel is screwing me over. Badly.

Do you feel like you need a purpose to it?
I think I need a purpose to life otherwise there is no purpose for me living.

Or are you content with going on with the flow?
I guess you could say I am...for now.

I mean right now its hard for me to know what college I want to go to, what I wanna do with my life and what my major for college will be. I have no interest in anything anymore. I still see my life as useless. I'm sure it's not like that at all but to me I see it as so.

A bit of a uh... morbid view of life. I think that everyone makes an impact even though its small. I know I don't feel like I'm making an impact but I'm sure that there's someone out there who's feeling down right now that could use some help and if I'm fortunate enough I'll be able to help them feel better.

As for my future, I'm as uncertain about it as the first time I stepped on the school bus to go to junior high. That was the worst bus ride of my life.

Now to answer the questions straightforward. Right now I feel life isn't doing very well. I've been getting sick lately and my grades are going down. To add to that philosophy is making me think way too much. It's pretty depressing to think that someone's insignificant but then again maybe our future is already predecided and the person who is going to discover the cure for cancer is out there learning how to ride a bike or getting on the bus to go to junior high or maybe even just getting into college. We never really know.

I would have to say that life definitely needs a purpose. I know that when I get depressed I feel as though there is really no point in living, which makes me feel worse and then leads to feeling just glum and lonely.

Now going with the flow. I'm fine with it for now just because I'm just getting used to being what I am even though I am 17, which is young compared to some people. I know that some places its nearly expected for women to get married and I'm pretty determined that I'm not going to get married so in the future I may just end up going against the flow.

Im just an artist, and thats all Ill ever be : ) Thats my purpose in life.


And I feel the same way as the first poster, but hell, theres no point in depressing about it, not saying he is. [ or she lol ] Plus, we have feelings, so as long as we have those, we arn't just plain walking bags of flesh who shall decay, we express and have intelligent thought, I mean, compared to just a sack of flesh.

Originally Posted by Aaron

Interesting subject. I will awnser honestly.
We are all mere hulls of flesh that has a soul purpose to rot and decay upon the earth. Yes, maybe oneday a baby will be born that will be the next step in our eveolutionary process, but still, thats one person, and even so, It wont be me, or anyone else. Every person on this site, doe snot matter. we all die, and then we are forgotte. So why even bother to make a mark on Society? Maybe one in a million humans might become a pimple on the ass of society?

Ha. That's a pretty physical look at things. "Evolutionary process" doesn't even cross my mind when I think about the human race and how much longer its going to exist... The only way I'd consider humans to "evolve" is if they would finally be able to stop being idiots. Materialistic. Greedy.

In English I was learning about the philosophy of existentialism, or the type of existentialism defined by the French writer Arthur Camus.

The philosophy defines people as having no soul; nothing predetermined. There is no god. Humans are alone intellectually in the universe. There is no divine plan. So what should you do? Not be a hedonist- Camus believed that once a man faced up to the realization that life was absurd, he could rise above it and continue acting for good, with dignity. Essentially, the difference is between a person who deludes themself while doing good things for the world, thinking "I will go to heaven" or "I was born to be a hero", versus a person who knows the truth: "Life is random and finite, and all people share the fate of death in which we become nothing; but all that does is to make life even more precious, and knowing full well the comparable futility of our actions, we will continue moving forward, and that is where our pride as humans lie".

I think of it as a hero facing down an evil dragon while feeling hope in the force of Good that will help him to win, compared to a hero who will still try to kill the evil dragon even though he knows he will most likely die. The differences in knowledge is a huge difference in the prepared mindsets of both heroes.

Which one is better? Personally, I don't really care, as long as both heroes are working for Good. Because life IS futile in a way, so even if you're a little deluded, as long as the end result is good (and the way to the result, btw), then I completely support that. What usually happens though, is something like "for the greater good" and you work towards something and justify it that everything will be better afterwards, while on the way there you cause a lot of strife.... hmmm, now why does that immediately remind me of George W Bush? (Hahaha, I alternately hate/am amused at how he's such a cliche example for stupidity and mistakes.)

@Wisty: Concerning the stupidity of man kind I'd have to say we're not all unintelligent. Then there's other factors that can make things that can seem horrible actually good. For example in economics I watched a video on greed. It compared the deeds of two people. The first person went to the slums and helped people get better while the other person provided jobs. Then the video asked which action was better? If you really think about it both of them are equally a good in a way. The way the man was greedy created jobs for people. He wasn't just giving the money away but rather providing a way for people to support themselves.

I'm not saying that greed is good nor am I saying it s bad though. Although if you went with the stoics view of life. Stoics basically believed that emotions weren't real, they were just something created by our mind in response to our senses. Then that leads you to what Descartes [philosopher] believed. He said that the senses can deceive people. He then said: "What has deceived me once may deceive me again" which ultimately means that he believed that senses cannot be trusted and if you combined his believes with the stoics then our emotions can be trusted. But then why do we have emotions? Is really just created by our mind?

On the subject of God. We have the idea of God but how can an imperfect being even imagine what a perfect being is. If we can think of the idea of a perfect being then this being must exist. It is like how Descartes said "I think therefore I am."

Now finally on George Bush. It's ridiculous how being ridicule him because once then next president comes along we're going to have just as many people protesting about how much they hate him. We only know what they media tells us and the media is there to entertain us. I have yet to see a fat pimple covered woman or man making a news report on NBC.

@'Haru: You have a really good point with going with the flow. There are some ways in which we do go with the flow due to the fact there is really nothing else to do but eventually we all deviate off onto our own path which later should become our purpose.

the meaning of my life at the moment?

probably to take care of the ones i love and care about and to clean up some of the mess that others have made trying to harm us.

also its to get my life straigtened out so the future isnt such a worryingly unknown area.

as a whole tho i think were all here to make way for the next set of living things, eather by reproduction, construction or death (i.e food)

its the whole butterfly effect in my eyes, if you kill and eat something, yea that one thing my be dead, but your going to live from it, also the things that the animal or plant would have used for nutriants will be around for a bit longer.

its hard to explain but i hope you get the idea.

I feel like I have a meaning in this life. I want to make a deep impact. Have my name up, even if it's just in this state. ^-^ I want to be on T.V. too. Like H&R Block, I'm going to be an Accountant. For a while at least. Along the side of being an Accountant, I also want to follow into art, sell my art.
That's how I feel at least.