“What is the meaning of life?” A deep and thought-provoking question that many of us struggle with answering. This question was posed to young men studying Level One English as part of the emphasis on Character Education. While young men studying at that level will not have a complete answer, the intent of the activity is to encourage them to think critically and to begin to develop an answer – one that will no doubt be modified and developed as they do. Thanks to the young men who had the courage to share parts of their answers – hopefully their work will help to spark some dinner table conversations in our school community.
“Many things give life meaning and one of those things is trying to reach your goals. Achieving goals can be done in a variety of ways such as getting a new job, starting a new, business or getting a degree or subscribing to pewdiepie. Reaching your goals gives life meaning because it gives you the push and desire to go and do the things you want to. Pushing for making goals gives you strength to keep going. Have you ever done alright on a test of in a sports game and thought ‘I can do better’? Then when the time comes around to do better and you do better you feel amazing, awesome and brilliant. I enjoy trying to reach new heights, for example, last year a goal of mine was trying to reach top stream and when I made first stream, I was so happy because I had done well with myself and reached my goal.”
“Your beliefs are the first of the three pillars of a happy life. The main reason to have a strong set of beliefs is a sense of belonging and direction in life. The most notable example of this is going to a church group. This is because you can share your beliefs and opinions freely, and receive guidance from priests, which can give life direction and meaning, and give you goals to do with your life, instead of just sitting around, day after day, not doing anything useful. Without this kind of direction most religious people receive, on your deathbed you may realise that you could have done so much more, and have a much more fulfilled and enjoyable life, had only you been given some direction. Going to a church group can also give you a sense of belonging among other church-goers. Because you can share beliefs you can also make friends with similar ideals, goals and beliefs very easily, which makes having a strong set of beliefs even more valuable, as it helps you have a better social life, which is my second point.”
“Having a passion that you love makes life enjoyable and gives you the energy to live. Every individual has something that they are passionate about, it could be a sport like rugby or cricket, or an art like theatre or music, a passion can be anything that you enjoy doing. Having a passion makes life enjoyable, people are the happiest when they are doing something that they truly love, and happiness is what everybody wants in life. A passion is also something that motivates us to get out of bed in the morning and live life to the fullest. It is the motivation and happiness that you find in having a passion and doing something that you love that makes life meaningful and worth living.”
