I Think I've Discovered The Meaning of Life

As Benjamin Franklin once said, “In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” Building on that, there are two truths in this world: we all live and we all die. The one guarantee we all have is death. Is that morbid? Maybe. But is it true? Absolutely. As human beings we all have a fundamental struggle of figuring out what life is. Movies, books, podcasts, and art all explore this same idea. What’s my purpose? What’s the point? Why are we alive? What’s the meaning of it all? In the two decades and some change that I’ve been alive, I think I’ve figured it out.

To put it simply, to be alive is to be loved, to be known, and to be seen. Taking all nuance and “but what if’s” out of the equation, stripped away to its core, I’ve found the meaning of life is to be loved and known. Truly known. All we crave is genuinity, experience, and love. Not just romantic, physical love, I’m talking REAL love. Unconditional love. Being fully seen and known for who we are, loved without judgment, loved without fault, loved at our core. Once we are truly known, not only by ourselves but others, I feel it fulfills our purpose as human beings. For me, this seems like common sense. I love people for who they are, not what they bring. I don’t care about material things or who you know, I care about who you are as a human being. I want to know what makes you, you.

A lot of this world is solely focused on only finding romantic love that most of us see friendships as placeholders in our lives. I think that’s wrong. That’s not all life is about. Life is about community, friendship, love. We need people around us to experience life with, to bond with, and while doing that with your one forever person is beautiful, it’s not enough. The human experience craves community and adventure because our purpose is in connection. Think of the last time you did something with a group of people with similar interests that just made you feel like everything made sense. Maybe that’s concerts, maybe that’s a book club, or hiking, walking, gossiping with your friends. The first law of thermodynamics tells us energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only altered in form. We are energy. Our bodies, our minds—everything about us is energy, constantly interacting with others and the world around us. Concerts, for example, are one of the purest forms of joy and life we can experience. People getting together in one giant room, listening to live music from a band or artist that everyone loves, creates a space of energetic joy that you can feel. You walk away feeling so hyped and buzzed. Personally, I love concerts. They mean everything to me. The people you meet, getting to dance and sing for a couple hours to music you enjoy, and being surrounded by people who just get it is one of the reasons that makes life worth living. Shared experiences like these make us feel purposeful and alive.

The purpose of life is to live, but to live intentionally. A lot of this is easier said than done. I feel like this conclusion can depend on how you were raised, your environment, and what kind of obstacles you’ve faced in your life. Intentional living, similar to how the Stoics see life as living in harmony with nature, reason, and virtue and achieving inner peace by accepting the things you can’t control, is in doing things for the sake of doing them, not just because you expect some kind of reward or good thing to happen to you. I feel a piece that Stoicism misses is to love for the sake of loving, loving as a choice. Not only loving others, but yourself. I truly believe in order to know the meaning of life, you must know yourself. Personally, I am my best friend and my biggest supporter. The one thing we can control is how we see and treat ourselves. I feel like once you come to know yourself truly, you’re closer to understanding what life means.

My personal journey hasn’t been an easy one. It hasn’t been the worst but it also wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine. The one constant I was lucky enough to always have was love. My mother taught me how to love truly and deeply, and how to navigate life by equipping me with the tools to deal with whatever life threw at me, because it did and always will throw obstacles at me. She gave me the space to be me, to find myself, to try things, to fail at things, but never judged me in the process. Because of this, I feel like I was able to come to the conclusion of what life’s all about. I could be wrong, but the older I get the more I see the same themes of purpose and searching that lead me to believe I’m most likely right. The meaning of life is in love, intentionality, and genuinity. When our final hour comes, what will be said of us? Will our material possessions or business achievements define us? Or will it all come down to how we loved? The energy of our connections, the love we shared, and the lives we touched. Our memory will live on in the lives of those we leave behind, carrying forward the meaning of life.