Take a moment and picture yourself and how you are just one person sitting or standing wherever you are now. Then picture the people around you in the room who are also just ordinary people who you are somehow connected to. Next, picture the community that you are in and the ones that surround you. If you zoom out some more, picture all the people in your city, your state, your country, that are living with you on the Earth. Then, if you zoom out even more and picture the Earth, our solar system, and our galaxy, you are just one tiny little speck in the entire universe. However, you can zoom back in and see that even though you are just one tiny living organism in the universe, your life can be so busy and complicated, and it is happening right before your eyes.

Each individual is just one person with their own separate life. We are all just living here on this big planet. Somehow, we were lucky enough to have been born and exist in this universe. You can even think about the fact that you could have been born as a dog, or a fly, or a fish. But you were born human and gifted with this amazing brain that can lead you in so many different thoughts and directions. We as humans have the capacity to think about so many things. But then we die. We are buried, cremated, who knows? Who knows if anything happens in the afterlife? Is there an afterlife? Or are we just done? If so then, what was the point or purpose of everything you did in life? What is the meaning of life?

For some, the answer to this question may be “to be happy”. But how do we achieve happiness? This is a challenging question and there are many different possible answers that differ for many people. Does being rich and having a lot of stuff make you happy? Does just doing what you love to do in life make you happy? Does meaningful work or making a difference in the world and helping people make you happy? Or a combination of those?  Is the purpose of life just to live? Is the purpose of life to have fun or an adventure? It definitely depends on the person, whatever makes them happy. Sometimes, we get too caught up in the moment and don’t take a second to realize where we are and how lucky we may be. However, it is important to recognize that our lives can be very busy, stressful, and challenging. Life is like a roller coaster; there are ups and downs, you get twisted all around, but it is over before you know it. So just enjoy life while it lasts because life is short. Even though life can be stressful sometimes, every once in awhile you should take a second and be happy for something and try to look on the bright side of life. Make change in the world, help others, or do whatever makes you happy and don’t forget to look at the large scheme of things every once in a while and assess how important your actions are.