Final Paper on a Good and Meaningful Life

Meaning. I recall that on the first day of the school year, an entire debate arose just over the definition of meaning. No two people had the same definition, but that said something in itself about what meaning is, and that is that it is something different for everybody. With the world telling us so many different things, I think it is best that you ask the people what they think, and come to your own conclusion. I will start with what I initially thought, then go on to other people to finally show what my final conclusion on what makes life meaningful.
10 months ago, I considered the meaningful aspects of my life to be my family, my friends, movies, comics, and my choice of music. Now I realize that this is not only because of the actual closeness of myself to those things, but because much of the world tells me that. Loving your friends and family is a dominant message in every form of the media, in religion, and in folk culture. In fact, to be distant from others and isolate oneself is a trait that is marginal and only stems from great tragedy. Having never experienced great tragedy myself, I obviously associated more with the mainstream message. This is one of the things the media heavily promotes that I truly feel is correct. By that I mean it is something that should be emphasized and made important. My love of comics, movies, and music all stem from my inner self, they are each a reflection of parts of me. These each show that something I considered meaningful was creativity and originality, as each media is about that.
9 months ago we asked other people, peers of ours, what they their thoughts on a good and meaningful life included. Once again, family and friends came up in nearly all interviews. This helped to solidify the place of family and friends in the meaningful life. What was interesting in this was that they all considered things forced onto others, like the media, school, etc, to be meaningless. This could probably be because they were not significant things that they felt were worth the time in the long run, as they left each experience with little gained. A new topic here was wisdom and common sense. I think that this is in fact very important to have and to cherish, because in the course of the last year of my life I have found an increase in the amount of people who show little to no understanding of common sense, such as people who immediately do what they are not supposed to, after they are told not to.
Four months ago we asked our elders, the senior citizens of America, what they thought on a good and meaningful life. My grandma was the interviewee for this, and what she said was revealing about her and her age group. Her answers were the first to include selflessness in a meaningful life. This was something I overlooked, and something I’m sure at least some of my peers must have overlooked but would include on reflection. I think that being selfless is a trait that many people simply lack today. While my grandma did not say that, I think that she would agree to at least a certain degree. There are many people, all ages, that are out for themselves and could care less for what the impact of this is. Take for instance Bernie Madoff, the man who stole 65 billion dollars. While this is an extreme case, many people are very selfish right now. This is due to the slumping economy. However this only serves to further hurt the economy, just as selfishness gets you nowhere in life. This cancels out the marginal media message of the loner, and proves that selflessness leads to gratitude to happiness.
Today I asked a child what she thought a good and meaningful life would include. Asking a child what they thought on a good and meaningful life had been something I had intended to do for quite some time, and in doing so I was able to see how a child would think of life, with today’s influences. I only asked one question. What does she consider a meaningful life. She answered only: A simple life. She went into detail to say that this would just be her, living in an apartment, having a pet. Now, taking into account she is in Fourth Grade and 9 years old, this astonished me. It was so contradictory to everything the media tells people to do. This actually made my day, and upon writing this I realize that in it’s simplicity and purity (since she is just a child after all), this was the best answer because it was automatic and from her heart. The most detail that she went into was saying that if she wanted meaning and to have an impact that recycling was key, saving the planet.
After taking in all of these influences, months of research in the field of meaning (if you wish to call it that), and countless excersizes analyzing the world that I cannot even do justice in this final report, I have come to the conclusion that what makes life meaningful is honesty. This is not coming straight out of left field, for the answer that effected me the most was that of a child, simple and honest. The answers from my peers that were most memorable were those that were not simple things from the media, they were their honest thoughts. A few months ago I decided to be 100% honest with people, tell them what I truly felt and accept what they truly felt with understanding and not harshness. This made me incredibly happy and brought me closer together with a lot of people, as they saw that I was only trying to help them out and tell them the good and bad. I have long held the opinion that meaning is not related to good or bad. While Superman leads a meaningful life, so does Hitler. Both of them went with what they felt was right, and whether those instincts were good or bad is irrelevant. To go with ones heart and do what you think is truly you is very meaningful and shows that people are not cookie cutter results of the media outlets or Biblical teachings. To be honest with yourself and the world is to forsake the opinions of others, and that makes the greatest impact of all and provides the most meaning.