Your Life on Earth: Philosophizing Purpose and Place
Reflection-
In this project we focused on the idea of Existentialism and our life purpose in many different directions. I decided to go deeper into the idea of nature and how that impacts our lives and gives us purpose. I wanted to show how the natural world and creativity is such a big thing in our lives and at times we don't even think about it. I made my writing piece focused on the essential question: what does it mean to live a meaningful life? And, what gives your life meaning? I focused on these because I think that the natural world is what gives us meaning and purpose to exist.
Throughout the project my personal philosophy has changed greatly. At the beginning I was thinking pretty small just saying to do what makes you happy and to live a meaningful life. As the project progressed and we started to learn more concepts my ideas developed into my final philosophy. Now I think that all we can do is live a life filled with fun and experience. One day we will all be gone and what will make me happy is the places and things i've seen and experienced. I see nature as a thing to distract us from existential crises. I was impacted by the idea of transcendentalism, to just live and let things happen as they do while enjoying simple things around you. Another portion of the project that led me to my final philosophy was the “Into The Wild” book. The book focused on such an interesting concept to me to let go of your life and to live by your own standards. Chris McCandless had such a complicated life and was able to let go of the good and the bad to truly find himself. Similar to this he withheld the same ideas as David Therou by being in nature an appreciating life without material possessions.
From here I have few questions following the dreading topic of our own mortality and what happens after we die. Throughout the project I feel like I gained many insights to what life means. Though I am only 16 and have a whole life ahead of me to further investigate what our purpose is, I feel like it is all irrelevant. There are so many unanswered questions but personally I don't feel like I need the answers. I am on this earth to live my life and enjoy what I do. They are questions, and that's all I will see them as. I just want to live my life without the existential dread constantly hanging over me.
In this project we focused on the idea of Existentialism and our life purpose in many different directions. I decided to go deeper into the idea of nature and how that impacts our lives and gives us purpose. I wanted to show how the natural world and creativity is such a big thing in our lives and at times we don't even think about it. I made my writing piece focused on the essential question: what does it mean to live a meaningful life? And, what gives your life meaning? I focused on these because I think that the natural world is what gives us meaning and purpose to exist.
Throughout the project my personal philosophy has changed greatly. At the beginning I was thinking pretty small just saying to do what makes you happy and to live a meaningful life. As the project progressed and we started to learn more concepts my ideas developed into my final philosophy. Now I think that all we can do is live a life filled with fun and experience. One day we will all be gone and what will make me happy is the places and things i've seen and experienced. I see nature as a thing to distract us from existential crises. I was impacted by the idea of transcendentalism, to just live and let things happen as they do while enjoying simple things around you. Another portion of the project that led me to my final philosophy was the “Into The Wild” book. The book focused on such an interesting concept to me to let go of your life and to live by your own standards. Chris McCandless had such a complicated life and was able to let go of the good and the bad to truly find himself. Similar to this he withheld the same ideas as David Therou by being in nature an appreciating life without material possessions.
From here I have few questions following the dreading topic of our own mortality and what happens after we die. Throughout the project I feel like I gained many insights to what life means. Though I am only 16 and have a whole life ahead of me to further investigate what our purpose is, I feel like it is all irrelevant. There are so many unanswered questions but personally I don't feel like I need the answers. I am on this earth to live my life and enjoy what I do. They are questions, and that's all I will see them as. I just want to live my life without the existential dread constantly hanging over me.
Final Art Pieces-
Personal Philosophy Statement
I think that the true meaning of human existence is to experience things. When you break it down the human life is seemingly meaningless, we will live and die and someday no one will remember us. However this does not mean that we can't appreciate what is here now. Even though we will be gone someday we still have the earth to appreciate now. I think that all we can do is go through life day by day because we have no control over anything. To an extent I think that we need to conform to the world because that is how things are, like paying bills and working a job. Though this is the case it is not all there is to life, because there are so many intricate details to life we live every day.
All we can do is live our lives and enjoy what is here. I think that we need to stop worrying about irrelevant things like the clothes that we wear or the cars we drive and should be grateful for what we do have. We must find simple pleasures in life and appreciate what is here because all of it could be gone tomorrow or in ten thousand years. A pretty sunset, a rock found in the dirt, a clear chest after hiking and the accompanying view, joking around with my friends, and red clay stained feet, those are the things I will remember. The idea of being remembered after we die seems very self involved to me. We all live our own lives intertwined with others but when death comes that's just the circle of life.The experiences and memories I had will be my mark on the earth, those are the things that I think about the most. It's hard, we feel like we waste our lives if we don't travel to expensive far away places and have nice things.
One thing that has impacted my life greatly is my friends and family. Most of the experiences I've had with them have been what I look back on and want to go back to. The connections you can have with other people amaze me that they can be so important to you. Knowing that there are always people to be there for you and that they understand you and your thoughts so well. With this I think it is also important to find time to be independent and know how to be content with just yourself. People are very important to be but sometimes I need to be alone and appreciate what's around me.
All we can do is live our lives and enjoy what is here. I think that we need to stop worrying about irrelevant things like the clothes that we wear or the cars we drive and should be grateful for what we do have. We must find simple pleasures in life and appreciate what is here because all of it could be gone tomorrow or in ten thousand years. A pretty sunset, a rock found in the dirt, a clear chest after hiking and the accompanying view, joking around with my friends, and red clay stained feet, those are the things I will remember. The idea of being remembered after we die seems very self involved to me. We all live our own lives intertwined with others but when death comes that's just the circle of life.The experiences and memories I had will be my mark on the earth, those are the things that I think about the most. It's hard, we feel like we waste our lives if we don't travel to expensive far away places and have nice things.
One thing that has impacted my life greatly is my friends and family. Most of the experiences I've had with them have been what I look back on and want to go back to. The connections you can have with other people amaze me that they can be so important to you. Knowing that there are always people to be there for you and that they understand you and your thoughts so well. With this I think it is also important to find time to be independent and know how to be content with just yourself. People are very important to be but sometimes I need to be alone and appreciate what's around me.
