The purpose of life, for me, started out with religion. I came to the conclusion that the basis for religion was to create an answer to the reason of human existence. In Christianity, a human’s purpose is to “live” for God. Therefore, in all circumstances, God is the priority and the reason. With this religious point of view, I believed that I would become content with understanding my purpose in the universe. However, this only brought up more questions. It lead to the question of, “Why does God exist?”My questions are similar to that of Jim Holt, a writer and philosopher who spoke about his thoughts during a TED Talk as to why the universe exists. He posed the question, “Why is there something rather than nothing?” I then asked, “What kind of universe are we living in?” as well as, “Why are we living?” These questions, I believe, can never be answered by anyone. However, these questions changed the way I viewed the world. We live our lives, oblivious to what we are actually living in. We are not aware of the universe that we are a part of; we will never know. This view helped me see the big picture. This helped me realize that my worries are so miniscule compared to the gigantic universe that we are a part of. It helped me realize that I can take chances without being scared. Each day is a new day of living in this oblivion where our worries are no longer relevant. The reason we are afraid of mistakes and failure is because we feel ashamed and disappointed. However, in this universe where everything is questionable, we cannot fear the life we are living in. We cannot be afraid of the world because we do not fully know the world. We can only live doing what we love so that we will not leave this inconceivable universe with regrets.

In conclusion, in my opinion, everyone’s views about the purpose of human existence and about the reason for the universe are different. However, our theories can never be deemed right or wrong and therefore, we must live a life that is not restricted by the boundaries of intimidation.


<Soma Chu, Cleveland High School 9th Grade>