Why do I do what I do?
After sitting here for an hour struggling to come up with some incredibly passionate reason for my existence here in the world, I keep coming back to the same main reoccurring theme in my life that is visible from when I was a child up to present day me. In everything I do, I do it to be completely and utterly in the moment—maximizing fun at 'all times.
When I was a kid all I wanted to do was play. Recess and Physical Education were my prime time of the day as my and my group of best friends and I triumphantly ran around the Park School Elementary playground. When the bell rang to go back to class, it almost seemed like the end of the world but we somehow made it back to class dripping in sweat—a physical display of the level of fun we were having.
Such a ‘carpe diem’ attitude on life was really instilled within me when my family and I travelled around the world for a year. Metaphorically speaking, the trip represents exactly the idea of living in the moment as my mother, father, and sister all put our crazy American lives on hold for a year just to look around and observe other cultures—finding the simple pleasures in life.
With the world we live in today—especially in the US—I feel it is very easy to get caught up in all the materialism and money and lose perspective of what we really stand for. I definitely find myself often lost as I focus too much on doing well in school and work. I lose perspective on what is really important in life—ones relationships with others and the fun one can get from simple pleasure like doing what they truly love.
When I lose perspective on what life is about, my natural reaction is to travel—a trait instilled in me by my parents. My junior year of high school I was that most out of touch with myself that I have ever been—many would call it a common identity crisis for that age—and my parents sent me to Argentina. Going to such a different place allowed me to learn a lot about myself and reflect upon the life I was leading at home. Many would call it an epiphany, but I thought with a lot of clarity over that summer in Argentina. I realized the only way to grasp life to the fullest is to take everything for what its worth with a positive attitude. Everyone really has something to bring to the table and not living in the moment doesn’t allow people to realize this. I’m not saying that life is a party and that people shouldn’t work hard—they should absolutely work hard but they should approach working as a constant learning experience and not as a task.
So how should I take such knowledge of myself with me into the future? I don’t really have any interest in wasting my time on something I can’t find meaning within. For me, I define something as having meaning if I can be in the moment and enjoy myself while I’m doing it. For example, I firmly believe that you should study what you enjoy—not study something so that you can make more money in the future. One’s quality of life is determined by the lens it is viewed through, and a positive lens of living in the moment is the reason I believe I live and why I do whatever I do.
Why do I do what I do? I live in the moment because in the words of Buddha “Success is not the key to happiness; happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”
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