At the end of the bittersweet journey of my first year at KAS, I wrote a blog post about myself. Rather it talks about me, it talks more about how I viewed the meaning of life, or should I say, how I tried to figure out the meaning of life. Are you afraid of solitude? Or do you spend time staring up the night sky, wandering in the endless thoughts of human existence? (ok guess I’m the only weird one who does this kind of stuff LOL) Whether if you are a weirdo (weird is a side-effect of awesome so… 😉 ) like me or not, have you ever wondered why are we here? What’s our purpose? What are we trying to fulfill or achieve? Anyhow, these questions kept lingering on without a defined answer…

The Meaning of Human Existence?

Note: This is not a study! Just some random opinion and thoughts:)

Before you start reading and hoping to learn about something that is actually meaningful, ask yourself this question: why do you matter? Why do we matter? While trying to figure out this question, I explored E.O. Wilson’s view on human existence. While I haven’t read this book, it caught my attention and brought me to an interview with this pretty cool old dude. Human beings argue that we are a species that are socially intelligent. Meanwhile, we created a sophisticated civilization, we are really stupid when it comes to managing the environment. (Don’t feel offended, we’re all the same species.) While words may not suffice to explain the meaning of human existence, I simply view our existence as an incident that happened in this infinite universe. An incident that’s irresponsible and inconsiderate. Whether you are an altruist or not, hatred often grows within myself as I acknowledged how we have ruined this beautiful, precious planet, how I wasted resources without thinking about all the consequences. 

While discussing human existence, it ties me back to seek the meaning of life. With an average life expectancy of 71.4 years, what are we supposed to accomplish through this one and only life? A current eighth grader once told me, “If we approach the meaning of life in an objective and scientific matter, then the purpose is to reproduce.” Well, I disagreed with him when I heard his bold statement. However, as I think about it, each of us was born alone and will eventually die alone. Fame, property, memories, etc wouldn’t exist in the afterlife. (or will they still remain in our minds in the afterlife? who knows? ?) If we couldn’t bring anything away after death, what’s the point of achieving everything we desire? 

“Live a Life You’d Remember”

Raise your hand if you never had any big dreams. I doubt if any of you raised your hand in front of your screen. I seriously do. Chasing our dreams, we sometimes get lost in reality. The pressure of reality sometimes causes the idealism in us to dissolve in the deep despair. Just look at ourselves, as students, what matters to us the most is grades. (Am I right? or is it just me?) Ok, if you don’t really care about grades, at least your parents somehow care about it, right? At least that’s what they said: You need to get good grades for a better future. Do grades really matter that much? Do grades still matter that much if it caused some of us to neglect our moral standards and decided to cheat? Not in my case.

To actually contemplate about the meaning of life right now, getting good grades doesn’t really add any meaning to my life. If I need to cheat in order to get a perfect GPA and get into my dream college, I would rather enjoy my life with freedom and carelessness. (Wow, how easy it is to say that. I doubt that I’d actually be able to do so…)

“Live a life you’d remember” sounds like a tough task yet an effortless one. Well, if you are always so caught up about getting the perfect grade for every single assignment, about satisfying all the MYP criteria, and about getting the presidential award at the end of every year…wouldn’t it be pathetic? (Totally my place to talk about this:) ) What is high school about? It used to be about grades, extra-curricular activities, and preparing for college…but after all of the sleep I sacrificed for school work and all the stress I gave myself, I don’t think it’s worth it to be so caught up about school. 🙁 So, go live the life you’d remember, go fulfill your expectations, go enjoy your life! Meanwhile, enjoy youth and have fun. 🙂