FINDING AND ACCEPTING YOUR PURPOSE IN LIFE

This was the final journal we had to write for Mrs.Johnson’s class. The finished paper is saved at a school computer, but I think it looks better incomplete.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” My dad would ask me that when I was little. Instead of asking me what I want to be, now he asks for me to become someone that can help others. How do you find your purpose in life? How can you be sure that a certain pathway is correct? You only live life once, how can you be sure that you’ll be right? Once you find it, would it be something you’d even want to follow?

A friend once asked me what I thought our purpose in life was. I answered to him that I thought our purpose was to help others and live a life with good morals. This was his response, “oh that’s nice, its funny how every time I ask someone this, they never mention God.” He made me think about how my religion comes into play. I grew up close to the church, mostly because my dad is a pastor. In one summer retreat I remember praying that I’d give up my life to serve God. It’s sad to see how quickly I forgot about the “purpose” I picked up. I asked my dad why he became a pastor; how he knew that was his purpose. He told me that God called him, and that became his purpose for living.

My sister threw away her dreams. She enrolled in a pharmacy school with a 15% graduation rate. She plans on doing something that won’t make her happy. She did it for my family. She did it to pay for my college tuition, my dad’s retirement, and to ensure our stability after my mother’s death. I think this is her way of accepting her purpose in life. Sometimes your purpose might not have been what you expected or enjoy, but something necessary. My sister isn’t forced to do this, she believed that this was her purpose and carried it out.

Honestly, I don’t have all the answers. After all, I’m just another teenager.