Final Paper: What makes life meaningful? (draft)

What makes life meaningful?

For some people a sense of meaning in their lives comes very easily. Others not so much. I believe it's just as possible for a person to find no meaning in their life as it is to find a good deal of it. Partly, this would have to do with what a given life consists of, but more importantly - how the person whose life it is perceives it. One might consider the people and things around them whose company they enjoy, the source of meaningfulness in their lives. Others, maybe slightly more introverted fellows could possibly understand the meaningfulness in their lives as coming from the level of content that they have with the life they are living. It's become clear to me that meaningfulness is very indefinite. Arguable too.

The time I have spent thinking about this question has lead me to continue believing something that almost goes without saying. A person's understanding of meaning in their own life has to be labeled by them. Intentionally or not. A person must create a sense of meaning on their own for them to have any sense of it at all. Meaning doesn't simply rely on a persons surroundings, or with what they spend their time doing. Just as with so many things, the meaningfulness of a life depends on who's eyes you are looking through - the perspective you have.

Many will gauge meaningfulness on their own perceptions of success. Lets say there was a man who was born into a family that was very financially well off. From his birth he has been nearly smothered in paid-for care - butlers and maids tending to his every minor need or desire. So much so, that as he grew older it was the only way to live that ever knew and with so much at his fingertips he found little reason to explore other walks of life. If success means financial bounty and ease, then this man was born with it. And if a life in which one has all the joys that money can buy is meaningful, than this man's life would be meaningful throughout. Although even as you are reading this, you might naturally think of ways that his story could be said to describe a completely meaningless life.

That being said, the content of a life does not have to change for a persons perception of its meaningfulness to change. Seeing as meaningfulness is not fact but opinion, an idea of what is meaningful might amend as quickly as anything else an individual might change their mind on. A persons experiences will sometimes change what that person values. That's why children often have very different aspirations as kids than when they are adults. Their preferences also change. With every new experience, a person has a slightly (or largely) revised view of the world. Growing up causes some people to fall to their knees at the feet of depression. A child might at at young age aspire to have some sort of heroic job when they grow older older - such as a fireman or an astronaut. Usually that wont be the case. More often than not they will eventually forget about that idea and find a more reasonable or viable career choice.

Meaningfulness is arguable, but no one can defy the meaningfulness that an individual can give something in their own mind. Right now I personally believe that meaningfulness can be leveled with a person's content and happiness in life.