Purpose | Teen Ink

Purpose

December 2, 2021
By Gracetodd BRONZE, Phoenix, Arizona
Gracetodd BRONZE, Phoenix, Arizona
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

    Purpose: the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists. Essentially, why things happen. It has been questioned for as long as mankind has existed, and most likely will never truly be determined for as long as mankind lasts. Nevertheless, the true question remains; why were we put on this Earth? There are two types of purposes. One is a universal purpose that impacts the universe or humanity as a whole, and one is a purpose for you specifically and what your life has in store for you. 

    Scientifically, our purpose is conducted for homosapians as a whole, just as cows or sheep have a purpose as a whole. We are complex organisms with no soul, that are destructive to each other and the spinning planet we reside on. After all, we all evolved from the same animal, or came from the same people. Either way, we did all evolve and develop differently from each other. Biologically, the chances of a specific person being born is immeasurably and catastrophically small. Many different genes would have to come in a specific order and be perfect to form a person. It is guaranteed that nothing else will ever be created like them. Learning this, it seems almost impossible that a person has no unique meaning to their life. It also seems impossible that a person, who it's almost inconceivable that they are who they are, has the same purpose as someone else who is also a miracle. I do not believe two people could be the same, or have the same purpose.

You may not always be aware of your purpose either. Your purpose could be bigger than yourself. For example, if you had a kid, who had a kid, who had a kid, who had a kid, who had a kid, who figured out the secret to world peace. Another instance could be smiling and being nice to a classmate who was miserable, and planning a school shooting. Your action of kindness could’ve saved lives and you didn’t even realise it. Vincent Van Gogh created mesmerising, revolutionary pieces of art. In 1890, Van Gogh took his own life. After his untimely death, his paintings gained so much success that we now learn about him in our history classes. He never even knew, and will never know the success he had. This could be similar to others purposes too. They will never see what they did, but others saw the impact they had.

However, purpose is not only perceived as our footprint we leave on the universe. It could be translated as what we are meant to do with our own lives, not necessarily the effect it will leave. An example of this is what type of job we are meant to have, or who we are going to be friends with.

One often wonders what they are supposed to do in life, to get the most out of it. This could also be what a purpose for our own lives are. I, myself, spent a lot of time pondering what to do, so that I get the most out of the short time I have here. I concluded that as a whole, it doesn't matter what you are doing, as long as you're happy and content with yourself while doing it. Personally, I can not see myself sitting in an office all day, no matter how much money it makes. Because of that, I do not think my purpose could be an office job.

This makes a lot of people anxious, thinking about what their life purpose is. It continues to make me nervous and nauseous if I think about it for too long, but I can't help it. After a long time thinking and reading about a life's worth and purpose, I learned to trust the universe and its timing. Anything that is meant to happen will happen when the timing is right.

Being a Christian, I do believe that God determines a set purpose for our lives, but I know not everyone believes that, so the reasons that we have a purpose vary between who you ask. Some will say the same thing as me, others will say we don't have a purpose because we are just complex organisms. Some will say that only some of us, the outliers or most unique will have a purpose. 

I don't think there is one set definition of what purpose is. Whether that is a human purpose, which might not exist, or a purpose of an event, which could all merely be coincidence. Everyone will have a different perspective of what purpose is. There are multiple ways to perceive purpose: universal purpose, life purpose, scientific purpose, religious purpose. There is also something different to say based on every aspect you look at it from. It all depends on who you ask.


The author's comments:

This article covers the definition of what a purpose is and also what it means to me. It goes over what it is from different perspectives such as scientific, spiritually, or personally. I feel like it is a very contemplated question "what is my purpose" and this article can give different ideas based on who you are. And make you feel more confident in your life not being meaningless.


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