【Revised Draft】What do the people around you say about living meaningfully?

When I walked on the street and asked the people who is passing by questions about life such as how meaningful is your life or what are the aspects of your life that makes it meaningful, I got varies of answers. The way I put them into categories is to divide the answers from individual to group. The most common answers that I got from the people on the streets are: families, friends, and happiness [a sense of belongings]. But there do have some unique answers such as: God, music, fashion, photography [dreams and achievements]. When people mentioned meaningful, it usually means something that you appreciate and it “means” something to you like a mark that makes it unique in your life.

One man that I interview on the street who is in middle class said, “My kids, because they are part of me.” Another man who is cleaning the windows that I interview the other day had said similar answers, “family and friends.” Also a few people said, “It [happiness] is the first thought that comes to me right away when I just hear the question.” I see the pattern here that most people who is in middle class, they usually answer: family, friends, and happiness. I think most of the middle class said that because they are appreciating what they have and they do not necessary have to look for something that they might not be able to reach to, such as to be richest person in the world. Their attitudes towards the meaningful of life are pretty simple and prevalent in the worldwide population, because not everybody can reach the highest social class. In addition, most of the middle class are carrying the “burden” with them such as taking care of the kids and make them to be educated person, so theses “burdens” are preventing them to go on their own to look for the meaningful of life individually. The specific pattern that I see from the people who response, “family, friends, and happiness” is that these people are the ones who think a meaningful life is to having a relation with somebody else to be able to make their life and somebody else’s life meaningful. Not necessary they are seeking for meaningful by themselves, but they are looking for meaningful by being part of somebody else.

While 2/3 of the people I spoke to indicated family, friends and happiness, the other third had various other points of view. One old lady who is a nurse of an old woman who has disabilities said, "convey God" and another woman that passed by me said, "What you make good and bad. What's good is good, what's bad is bad." Also there is one lady had said, “happiness and finding your bliss”. All these response to meaningful life shows that they are kind of individual. It does not seem like it has to be contact with somebody else to make their own life meaningful. They seem to be going on their own on what they really want for their "own" life, because they have a typical obligation such as God and bliss. Also when the old women response to "what's you make good", it shows that everything is depending on your own self in your life. Not necessary have to be with someone to achieve goals, but individually by yourself. In addition, one newspaper man that I interviewed said, "love, because that's what make peace". The patterns that I am seeing here is that, some people like to make their life meaningful by themselves and it has nothing to do with somebody else. The man who is selling the newspaper thinks that "peace" is what it makes life meaningful which had show individual find their way of life to have some meaning by having dreams or hope. All these people are differing from the previous ones, because these people are the ones who like to be independent and go on their own other than with somebody else. It does not mean these people do not have a family or friends, but it seems they like to do things individually in order to make life meaningful for them.

To live a meaningful life, the similar aspects between individual and group is that they both are identities that tell people who they are in this society. It does not really matter they say family or God; it gives people a sense of who they are in this world.