Your Life, Your Story

When asked how I measure life...What makes someone's life really amazing.

Your Life, Your Story

How do we define how an individual is supposed to live their life? Is it how successful they are in their career? Or how many degrees they obtained by going to colleges and universities? Is it how big their house was or how many nice cars they owned, was it how expensive vacations they went on or how big their bank account was? Is someone defined by all the success and money they made, by the education they received and the expensive things they collected during their lifetime?

A person may live their entire life becoming very educated at the most prestigious universities, being the most successful at their careers, and acclaimed by all who know them professionally yet when they go home and are with those closest to them they don't have any characteristics that someone closest to him/her that make them pleasurable to be around. Does it matter if because they are successful, educated, and wealthy, they can treat others around them as if they are superior?

For me, life shouldn't be measured by whether a person went to a prestigious school, if they made lots of money, or even if they were the most successful in their careers. None of that matters if they treat others as if they are superior because of the degrees they've earned or because of the wealth they have obtained. 

A person who degrades others to make themselves feel superior isn't a person who is truly happy within themselves. If all they have focused their entire existence on is education and their career, they can't possibly know what life is truly about and how to find what it genuinely means to be truly happy.

A person who knows what it is to live life being genuinely happy is an individual who treats everyone they come into contact with respectfully and with kindness. Humanity is so much more than college degrees and bank accounts, but it's about helping others, encouraging the people they meet, and being compassionate and caring for others, even if it's just in passing.

The world we live in doesn't have enough people in it that are genuine and kind. Our world is full of selfish individuals who only care about themselves and never consider others, even in passing, most people are so focused on their destination, solely on their own agenda and their desires and needs. Very few are aware that others around them are people with feelings, goals, and lives of their own. These few understand that the world doesn't revolve around just them but the people around them may be fighting battles or dealing with tragedies that no one else has bothered to understand, help with or even taken the time to notice another person in distress. 

When I measure a person's life, it's always how that person treated others or whether they took the time to appreciate the small things in life. I measure it with the amount of true happiness they found, the love they shared and the characteristics of the person. I have found that even at my lowest point in life, when I take the focus off of myself and the problems and issues I am facing and I put my focus on helping others. By helping other people I no longer am depressed or anxious about things going on that are usually things I have no control over anyway and I am able to refocus on being there for someone else and doing what I can to assist them in their needs. 

Usually, my own problems pale in comparison to those that other people may be dealing with. I no longer harp on my situation but feel a genuine feeling of appreciation for life by helping others. You find true happiness when you stop being selfish and learn what it means to experience what life is really about.

Becoming a better person, being kind, and having compassion for others make life worth living. Life becomes fulfilling and has a purpose more than ever before. People were meant to live their lives in harmony. Not judging each other based on their skin color or how wealthy they are. Once we learn to love one another and accept our differences in religious beliefs, sexual preferences, and political views. If we can respect others differences and accept that we may not always agree on everything but we can still live co-existing in unity by understanding that we may perceive certain things differently but when it really matters, we are all the same. We have many things in common that we haven't taken the time to realize.

In the end, the majority of us just want to live our lives freely, with our loved ones, without being persecuted or treated unfairly. We all want the best for our children, a world that is safe, a world without murder, rape, or the fear of being robbed or assaulted.  If we could learn to stop the hate that so many carry for reasons that shouldn't even matter. We could learn to accept one another and understand we are all here on Earth, one world we share with so many cultures that instead of discriminating against, we should be sharing our cultures, learning different ways people live life and finally realizing that just because we may do things differently, eat different types of food, wear different clothing, style our hair differently and believe differently than we do but these are things to share among one another. 

Life is only truly lived when we see beyond ourselves. A life that is full of hate and segregation of those that may be slightly different isn't a life that was lived. When we learn to see beyond what we have been taught in a classroom and we experience the true meaning of living life to the fullest and becoming the best person we can be, only then can life be measured. 

I strive to be better than I was yesterday. I make mistakes that I learn from. We should all learn from the past, and make changes for the better in our daily lives, in our government, and in the world we live in. If we continue to repeat history, what are we really achieving by continuing to make the same mistakes over and over instead of learning from our history and making a better tomorrow for our children and our children's children?  

We should all be on the same mission to make the world we live in better for future generations, stop making the same mistakes our ancestors before us made and finally live in peace and in unity. 

War, poverty, segregation, slavery, and world hunger are all things that we should leave in the past, making them obsolete, for future generations. Hate is taught. When a child is born they do not recognize the differences in skin tones. If we teach our children acceptance and love, that is what they will pass on to their children. 

When asked how I measure life and what I want my story to be, it's that I saw beyond the things I was taught and learned about life by experiencing different cultures and what it truly means to live. You must strive to be better every day. Learn from your mistakes, accept others for who they are, and respect their differences. Always help others and have compassion and empathy for those who are struggling or dealing with things in their life that may make them seem unkind or unapproachable. 

Remember that life is a gift we are given and each day should be lived as if it is our last. Appreciate the little things and be grateful no matter how difficult life may seem for a time, there is always someone who has it worse than you do. Life is measured by moments we can look back on and be happy to have those memories we cherish as life passes by. Making memories with family with very little money is better than being on an expensive yacht with no one that we genuinely love. Materialistic, expensive and extravagant things can never compare to the priceless moments we share with the ones we love even when if in poverty. A small home full of love is by far better than a mansion filled with malice.

Life is measured by those moments, by how we treated others and what legacy we will be remembered by.

Author's Note

How do you measure someone's life? What's important in life? What is meaningless?

Reviews

[Richard🖌]

PSST!
Hi, Mystik,

Sounds interesting in your Author's Note, but it's too light to read. 🤓