“Be the change you wish to see in the World.”- Mahatma Ghandi
Throughout the course of my life, I have wrestled with figuring out the meaning of life. The beautiful thing about the meaning of life is that no matter who you talk to, everyone’s definition varies. While many people may have discovered this definition at a young age, I have to confess... I just discovered my meaning of life. After 21 years, I can now say I finally get it. Don’t judge me…I’m a slow learner okay.
In high school I was a good student, but I was never the best. Although I worked hard, I was only satisfactory compared to my genius IQ-level friends. I’m not kidding…actually genius level. I always adored writing, but I was scared to express myself through my writing in fear of it never being good enough. Years went on when there was so much I wanted to express, but fear of inadequacy held me back. After high school graduation, my outlook on life changed. I became more independent and with that, my comfort in myself as well as my writing followed an upward trend.
As I progressed through college, I started to realize that as I grew comfortable with myself, I found the meaning of life through my writing. I had so much I wanted to share with the world and I was finally ready. With social media engulfing our lives, we are privileged to have the worldwide web at our fingertips. However, our ability to publicly post our thoughts and opinions by the mere touch of a phone screen has its pros and cons. It’s so easy for us to take the easy way out and lie to others about how everything seems so perfect behind the façade of Facebook posts and whatnot. We hide behind filtered photos and judgmental commentaries. Technology has made it so simple to place hate into this world in a matter of seconds. On the other hand, choosing the road less traveled by being honest and kind to others, takes courage. And, this is the road I chose to travel. I was motivated to be honest and speak words of love and not hate. I wanted to share my stories with the world, thus, my reason for writing articles for The Odyssey.
Not only has writing been an incredible outlet for me, but it has helped me understand my purpose in life. God handcrafted a talent specifically for me. What good am I doing if I let my handcrafted abilities collect dust in the back of my mind? I quickly realized that through my voice, I could open up about my struggles and hopefully inspire others to be a light in this world. Although I am only 21-years-old, I have been able to gain so much knowledge through various time periods in my life. From these periods, I have chosen to be honest and open up about issues which are normally taboo to talk about. Technology can be used for good, and I want to demonstrate that.
Life is about helping others, being honest, and creating a lasting impact on earth. I was created to bring good to this world. Whatever you believe in, each and every one of us was given a talent, so go out and use it for good. This world is full of evil people, don’t be another one. I have chosen to live and write by the motto: If not me…then who?It only takes one spark to start a fire. If I do not set an example for hope, positivity, and honesty…then who will? Whether or not you believe in karma, being a decent person has not gone out of style.
