The Final Paper

Taking this course has taught me a lot about what things make life meaningful. Now I have learnt about this topic throughout the school year and I have seen the various aspects that we as a class saw as the most meaningful aspects of life. Some of these aspects are music, family, elderly people, sports, food, friends, and basically any other topic/ activity that interests the person. This has basically told me that the meaningfulness in someone’s life is not only measured by the amount of time happiness is felt but also, in my opinion, how big of a mark you put on others. In my situation in life I feel that my life is meaningful but not meaningful to its full potential. I feel that in order to have a meaningful life I must not only be happy but impact other people in the world besides myself. To make my life more meaningful I must explore the possibilities in life while still obtaining my happiness.
In my future I feel like I have the opportunity to become very big in my field and become a meaningful person on a world scale. The way I feel that I can is by possibly becoming a chef. The reason this would make my life more meaningful because I would be doing something I would enjoy while simultaneously growing on the scale of life/ moving up in society. By becoming a chef I would be in the service of supplying people with substantial meals which affect our people in a positive way, while also doing something I enjoy. This would mean affecting a lot of people in the world because thousands—millions of people could go to the restaurant. And since I would be in a good restaurant I can go home every night with the satisfaction that I affected the world in a positive way. Plus I would put aside all the leftover food to an organization called City Harvest. This organization goes around to certain restaurants, picks up the leftover food, and delivers it to homeless shelters so that homeless people who are in dire need of the food can be fed. This would bring out my “animal instincts,” from within me. The reason is that since I would be happy and worry free I would be like a majestic animal in a forest that can run around happily with no worries. And not only will I be happy I will be affecting the world in a positive way so I wouldn’t be destroying the planet with tons of greenhouse gasses. Therefore, cooking in my life would make my life more meaningful because not only would I be affecting other people positively, I will also be making myself happy.
I also follow folk messages that I believe help me live a good and meaningful life. A folk message that has a major part of how to live a good and meaningful life is friendship. The reason that this folk message stands out to me is because it is something that contradicts dominant corporate messages. The reason it does is because these dominant messages tell us that a meaningful life is having a lot of material objects, money, big house, etc. But this folk message of having friends contradicts that because there can be someone in middle class with a lot of friends and less money, can be happier than a man in upper class with a lot of money with no friends. A person with no friends even with a lot of money is actually less happy then they got no one to share any good times or joy with. It would be like watching your favorite team win a championship and then want to give someone a celebratory hug or high five but there would be no one there. And it is times like these that make even a rich person very lonely and unhappy. Because money can’t buy true friendship, people who are your friends because you are rich aren’t true friends. They won’t stick with them through the good and bad. Real friends stay with you regardless of the circumstances. This is a way that folk messages can be more important than dominant corporate messages.
Another aspect I have learned this year was health and about how to make healthy personal decisions. This means making the right decision that would impact other people positively and the person making the decision. The example we used in class to convey this message of “right decision making,” was the the guy in retirement who has to make a choice between saving the car he has saved money his entire life for or saving a little kid from getting hit by a train. Either way he can’t get both so either his dream car gets destroyed or a kid dies. So in my opinion I feel that the healthy decision would be to save the kid. Even though the car represents the one person’s financial security, everyone should have the right to live. Therefore saving the kid would be more morally right instead of saving a material object. This would be something that I would use in my own life because it tests your ability to make big decisions. I believe that the right decision is the one that would affect the most people positively. Therefore by saving the kid it would affect others in an emotionally positive way instead of that person being brutally murdered which in most cases would result in agony. Instead of saving the car which only would’ve affected one person. In this sense I feel that I would use this in my life to become a healthier person mentally, knowing that I just saved a life.
Observing holidays is another way to live a good and meaningful life. In our culture different holidays are observed for different reasons. I feel that a unique holiday that isn’t technically considered a dated holiday on a calendar is the Sunday the Super Bowl is played. This is a day in the world that people that isn’t even football fans stop on their televisions to watch a football game. The Super Bowl is considered the biggest football game of the year. The game where the two best teams in the league, one from the NFC(National Football Conference) and the other from the AFC(American Football Conference). And for this game it is when fans of their team bring out their true Fanhood. Fanhood is that special passion a person has inside them, passion that can’t be taken away, the commitment to stay up day and night watching ESPN and reading sports magazines and papers in order to be up to date with your favorite teams. Along with all the drama coming with each week, with the game coming down to a 4th Down or that tying/ go ahead field goal with time running out, shocking injuries, off field issues, and the thoughts of will my team show up to play and are they good enough get answered on the day of the super bowl. Other answers come from the individual players themselves. Some players in the super bowl have to prove themselves to their teammates, organization, and mostly the fans. This process happened to New York Giants Quarterback Eli Manning last year. After being shelled in the playoffs every year he started in them, he was able to play his best football and shut all the critics up about his incapability to win the big game. He threw only one interception on his postseason journey on the road from Giants Stadium beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card Round, division rival Dallas Cowboys in the Divisional Round, the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship, and finally bringing it all together by beating one of the already Super Bowl greats Tom “Terrific,” Brady and the undefeated Patriots taking their possibly historic 19-0 perfect season and making them fall one game short at 18-1.
Besides just the game this day has a lot to do with the people watching it. This isn’t a day where fans go out to watch the game in dress clothes. This is a more casual day where you dress in your team’s colors/ attire. Meaning wearing a hat, t-shirt, jersey, shoes, pants, whatever it takes for you to be satisfied with how you are representing your team. Some people even enjoy using face and body paint. Watching the game with your faced painted with your team’s colors or being topless and painting your entire chest and back in your team’s colors. On any other day of the week people would think you were out of your mind but on this occasion no one cares. This is a unique aspect to how to live a good and meaningful life because it isn’t something that is very common. I feel that acting like an animal, covering yourself in paint, and just having a good time with friends can be one of the most meaningful times of my life. Therefore living a good and meaningful life also means enjoying holidays in your own unique way.
In conclusion, I believe a perfect good and meaningful life is the ability to balance the aspects that I have mentioned before. Being able to challenge life but at the same time having fun with it is the goal because you can enjoy yourself while feeling accomplished. It is only when life has nothing more to give and you can look in a mirror and ask yourself, was my life meaningful? And if yes, then you have accomplished your purpose in life and can therefore live out your remaining days in peace.