What do yoga, reading, travelling, education, music, sports, and parents all have in common? The answer for many people may very well be nothing; however for me all of these things hold a certain commonality. After mulling over the difficult question of “why do I do what I do?” for quite some time, I have finally come to the conclusion that the only consistent, driving force behind my life is to better myself as an individual. Everything I do in life has no clear-cut end: I will never completely master the sport of surfing, I will never learn all of the knowledge in the world, and I will never be the best drummer in the world. However, there is still a reason that I pursue all of these interests and I feel like one of the most influential happenings of my life that has led to the reason behind all of this was reading Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. This short book (only about 120 pages) had such a direct impact on my life because it related the idea that through the process of trying to better understand others and the world as a whole, one improves him/herself. It is this process of self-cultivation that is essentially one of the most critical processes behind what it means to be alive. Since reading this book, I have strove to look at everything in life as a meaningful experience that happens for a reason and holds the potential to teach me something about myself. All of the things I listed above are ways for me to better understand others and in turn better myself; I look up to my dad and hope to someday take on some of the characteristics he has, I enjoy learning as much as I can which enlightens me to the amazing things that have been learned by others as well as pushes me to further teach myself, and travelling and reading allow me to see life from another perspective which I can possibly apply to my own. For other people, life means other things, but for me I do what I do because I am constantly trying to improve myself.
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