Other Peoples Meaning of life

“So, what’s the meaning of life?” “*Sighs* what a stupid question.” “Well now, that’s a question alright.” “What? I don’t know, why?” “Eh?” “Well, the meaning of life is to, you know, live.” People around you are all living their life, but how
often do they think about it? How often do these people think about the meaning of life? And what do they think? Through a series of interviews with close friends and family, a school wide survey, and a bunch of casual conversations, we have come to an idea about what these people in our lives think about life and its meaning. Throughout the research many patterns arose, it seems that most people view what is most important to them as the meaning of life, such as family and personal happiness. Results from the survey cross into the casual conversations and interviews, all sharing common thoughts about happiness, friends, family, or about basic human instinct and human evolution. There were also responses beyond those a personal happiness and family that contrasted what it seemed the majority thought.

Happiness was one of the major patterns that arose when people were asked what they believed to be the meaning of life. The survey results had several questions on happiness that revealed that the majority of the school believed that happiness was one of the most important aspects of the meaning of life. 67% of the students attending School of the Future believed that happiness is almost always the most important aspect of living a meaningful life. While 22% percent did not say always, they still believed that happiness has to do with the meaning of life and said that it is sometimes true that happiness is the most important aspect of life. All of these percentages are drawn from a survey taken of 6th-12th graders that attend School of the Future, and these results are probably drawn from the fact that they haven’t really though about the meaning of life, and draw their answers from what is most important to them at the present time, which for middle and high schools is to be happy.

Much like the surveys the personal interviews and casual conversations revealed similar things about what people though about happiness and the meaning of life. A good friend of mine, Taylor Moore, had similar responses to those in the survey about the meaning of life and happiness: “Living happily. I think that is pretty self-explanatory. One should enjoy themselves within the bounds of situational morality.” His personal belief was that each person should live their life to be happy, and that they do this by living each day in the present, and not worrying about the future or the past. What h says about situational morality is basically that while you should live a happy life, you should still base your actions on the consequences. For example, if a certain action would make you enjoy life, but would cause others harm in the end, it would be out of bounds for situational morality. What Taylor said about happiness relates back to the survey, who like Taylor, believe that happiness is one of the most important aspects of life. Like Taylor, another one of my good friends, Kyle, had similar thoughts about the meaning of life: “I’d say it’s to find and live for something you love and something that makes you happy.” Kyle believes that the meaning of life was to find something that would make you happy, and then live for that. His ideas are much like those of Taylor’s and those from the survey that happiness plays a major roll in life.

While it may seem that everyone believes happiness is the most important, there are other opinions that have a different outlook on life. For example, there are people who believe in the Darwinist views on the meaning of life. My mother, Geraldine Engel, has this to say about the meaning of life: “We live to survive, to reproduce, and to further the evolution of human beings. That's the meaning of life in my opinion, it’s to survive and reproduce.” Another student at school of the future phrased the same idea in a more blunt fashion; “Eat, sleep, fuck, die. That’s life.” (Dean Merrit) These are both drawn from the fact that why should the meaning of human life be different then the meaning of life for all animals, which is quite simply “eat, sleep, fuck, and die.” Both these views take the side of evolutionary views of life, that life is just to survive, reproduce, and further the evolution of mankind.

Another idea that sprung up over the surveys and in people’s interviews was the idea of friendship and family. A good amount of people believed that the meaning of their lives is to live for other people. One of the survey questions asked students what was most important in their lives at the present time. 52% of the entire student body claimed that friendship was the most important aspect of their life. This and happiness were the two major trends that sprung up on the survey results. Many students probably chose this as the most important aspect of their lives because that is what they are surrounded by day after day. They are surrounded by their friends, so it just makes sense that they would be the most important aspect a student’s life.

Most of the trends that appeared in the survey are skewed because the survey was only given out to high school and middle school students thus lacked the opinion of adults and people who have already graduated school and now work for living. For example, the question used above: What is the most important aspect of your life at the present time? This question depends highly the current state that your life is in. While we know that 52% of the students said friendship was most important, would we get the same results if we questioned the occupants of an office building? Probably not. These errors surround all of the survey questions and, while the surveys do provide good information, it would still be good to get a wider opinion of more people in different stages of their lives.

The information gathered from the surveys and interviews gives us a glimpse into people’s beliefs about the meaning of life and generate interesting results. We see that the majority of students believe that happiness and friendship are some of the most important aspects of life. We also see alternate views on life such as Dean and Gerri’s ideas about evolution and Darwinism. Further investigation is always necessary for a topic as broad as this. Like stated before the opinions of middle age adults and above are lacking in the survey and in the interviews and that would be the perfect step to further the investigation about what people think about the meaning of life. In conclusion, while the amount of sources may be slim, it is still clear that being happy and having friends and family is one of the most popular beliefs about how to live a meaningful life.