Week 1
A Talk About Life
Who Am I? The Purpose of my Existence
I can remember as a child always asking myself the “why” questions of life. What is the purpose of life? Why are we here? Why do certain things happen? I had always kept these questions to myself and eventually pushed them out of my mind altogether. And when I started to grew up I realize that life is the way it is, it is full of mystery sometimes life can be sunny or rainy, but God made it that way.
I am a girl who is really hardworking. I’m the eldest child and I only have one brother. I’m very compassionate, I love reading books, surfing the internet like a typical teenager, daydreaming and sometimes find solace under the sun. When I was young, I dreamed of becoming many things, and I knew nothing about the world. Looking back, I realize that the imagination is a wonderful thing. I was able to create entire environments and scenarios in my head. I was me back then. But when I entered school. I was one of those kids. I was branded as “smart.”
In fact, I graduated Senior High School with flying Colors, I graduated with Highest Honors, I am the Class Valedictorian. I received numerous awards like: Most Outstanding Student Research, Outstanding Vanguard Member, Gregorio-Dominga Excellence Award (This award is named after the founder of our school and is given to a student who excels in our batch, and in my surprise this award was given to me), Annual Deportment Award-Gold and Academic Distinction in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
At first this wasn’t a problem in fact, it was kind of awesome. As a teenager beginning to worry about fitting in, it seemed great to be known as intelligent. After all, that’s a compliment and my classmates would ask me for help. There’s this double standard, really: no one seems to want you to be oh so intelligent, but the second you slip up they judge you. A lot of my classmates in senior high school knew that I struggled with my Basic Calculus, I could feel their confusion and disappointment. I was supposed to be smart. It became my definition, and as soon as I felt like I wasn’t brilliant anymore I didn’t know who I was. I felt like I wasn’t allowed to fail. I’d like to be my old self again, but I’m still trying to find it.
My mother told me that there’s a sweet balance between pride and humility. It’s okay to be proud of your accomplishments but always be humble and keep your feet on the ground. Here’s what I’ve realized, everyone is smart in their own different ways, and for me that’s great and more than anything, it’s okay to fail.
I used to think everyone was so hard on me until I realized that I was the one being that hard on myself. I also realize that the most difficult thing in life, is to know yourself.
So what is the purpose of my existence? As I step in the college world, I know now my purpose and that is to become a beacon of hope and light to someone and to bring out the best version of their-selves.
My purpose is to inspire people. I want to influence others. I want someone to look at me and say “Because of you I didn’t give up.”
The Meaning of Life and How to Achieve a Happy and Successful Life
“Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, its about learning to dance in the rain.”
We all go through rough weather at various points in our lives. Sometimes we sit down, to wait for the storm to pass, and then forget to get back up. Take a moment to consider where in your life you might have paused for a break in the weather, and never gotten back to it.
So how to achieve a happy and successful life? I am intrigued by the idea of learning to dance in the rain. I know, It is not easy to know how to continue living during the worst of a downpour. Nonetheless, life is not all about waiting for the storm to pass, nor is it about avoiding it. It is about learning how to enjoy living life, and if you live your life to the fullest you know, within yourself that you will be successful.
So, my challenge to you, and of course for myself, is to find time to recognize that as humans, we all experience storms in our lives and the right thing to do is to use the storm as an opportunity to see things in different perspective and to see the beauty of life.
So, pause, close your umbrella and dance in the rain!