Importance of Purpose – This I Believe

“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” -Pablo Picasso

How do I establish excellence? What is the reason why I was born into a wealthy family in a safe country? Why was I born and what do I do with my life? As I became more independent in my life and started to become more aware of the world I live in, I gradually began to search for my purpose in life.  Through various experiences and philosophies that I study, I began to materialize the answer to my question. And this is what I believe in; the importance of obtaining a purpose.

Purpose to me, is like a compass. We are all adventures in life; step by step, we walk through obstacles that stand in our way. As we walk down our own paths that intermingle, separate, and conjoin with each other, we may lose our track and find ourselves blinded with no where to go. Life, indeed, can bring about obstacles that surround us and stop us from reaching our maximum potential. In these moments of confusion and despair, I imagine and believe how strong we could be as individuals if we held a firm compass in our hands. What if I could have a compass to guide me in every step I take? What if I could uphold conviction in the direction I go? The power that we can embrace within. The love that we can share. With a compass, or in other words, a purpose, we can find our direction in life, thus bringing forth our greatest potential. 

Being the oldest sibling of an immigrant family, the majority of my childhood was studying and taking care of my siblings. I had never had the chance to look into extra-curricular interests and I never encountered things I loved to do from the bottom of my heart. While others had hockey practice to attend, piano lessons to do, and sleepovers to go to, I found myself at home running errands to run a family alongside my mother. My life then was like an adventure without a compass-without being able to find a direction, I was taking meaningless steps, both forwards and backwards.

As of young age I realized through the untimely death of my uncle that we don’t have forever in this state of life. Anything that is born, will die. It was the shock of knowing that this expedition I was on had an absolute end. What did I want to accomplish in my venture? Where did I want to go from this plateau?  Without any insight into what I wanted to do, I became worried that I was wasting time with my limited life; that I was not fulfilling my mission as a living being. I began my search for my own purpose, my compass, to find the role I have in the world today.  How can one recognize true happiness without discovering their purpose and identity first? 

 

One summer, my father surprised us with tickets to the production, Les Miserables. It was performing a tour across Canada and I was lucky enough to experience the greatness of theatre. The powerful art that they produced on stage took me on a grand expedition. Through rivers and mountains, across the fields and the beautiful skyline. The delusional hope. The endless pain. The joy of living. On stage, they had taken me around the world, inside out, with their music and their acting and their passion. Their grandeaur took me in their arms and gave me a tour of hope and dreams.  Tears rolling from my eyes, trembling to stand up for the standing ovation, I realize… I have a dream. I too wanted to take people on a tour through hope and dreams. I wanted to be like them, giving purpose and a sense of life to countless people through love expresed by their immeasurable efforts to be on that stage.

I was given a dream. And my dream was to be the giver of dreams. It was a moment in my life where although small, I found in me a desire, a purpose, which fundamentally changed who I was and how I chose to live my life. I was inspired by what they had done. I was empowered by their gracious act. As a mere audience member, I found in me a compass, a motivation, a direction. My life had transformed from a mundane, confusing trail into a hopeful, lively escapade. I wanted to inspire and empower to give dreams to others.

 

With this new ambition I decided that it was a true necessity for me to indulge in everything I could with the greatest dedication to show what could be done. I realized that to inspire I must become a figure that gives attention to every detail of my life to improve. I realized that what I must do was to take up what others would deem as impossible and change that into success. With this purpose in my heart, I found ineffable energy flow through my body, mind, and soul. It drives my life state from pessimism to optimism. It allows me to obtain the conviction to accomplish what I set out to do and to venture into the unknown with my compass in my heart. This purpose drives me to do more, to do better, and to make all my ambitions come true in every aspect of my life.

 

I have a meaning

 

My mission is to become an individual with great wisdom and power in order to share and give knowledge to people in need to empower their lives. My mission is to propagate world peace and the happiness of all people.  With a compass, I am able to obtain this conviction in the steps I take in my life. 

 

To uphold a purpose, is what I believe. 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

12 thoughts on “Importance of Purpose – This I Believe

  1. Dear Dai,

    I am quite content that you chose to discuss about your commitment to inspiring others because it is most definitely something that I notice about you personally. You wrote this piece genuinely from your heart and that is seen within the experiences that you vividly describe. The use of an initial quote really helps to ease the reader into the piece as you were able to smoothly transition from your story to your own personal reflection, and end with a quite powerful message.

    As for improvements, I would suggest that you discuss more of those experiences which were touched on within the first paragraph, as you began to drift away from that initial topic into another idea.

    I felt that I held a special connection to this piece as finding some purpose, something to look forward to in one’s life is something that I too have been thinking about recently, and I am glad that you were able to capture all of these ideas within your piece. I thoroughly enjoyed reading and commenting on your work and I am excited to see what you may have in store for the future.

    Sincerely,
    Ekaum

    1. Dear Ekaum,

      Thank you for reading my piece! It is very fulfilling to receive a comment from someone that upholds a similar I Believe as mine.

      As for the improvements, I can only smile at how accurate you are with your points. I will make sure that the anecdote is further discussed upon to take my blog to the next level. I understand how I may have left some initial ideas in the open that I could pick up and use for enhancing the topic.

      I’m very happy that you find connection to this piece and I hope that we can uphold dialogue about purpose soon whether it be in person or in our blogs. Again, thank you for your time and your kindness to comment on my blog.

      Sincerely,

      Dai

  2. Dear Mr. Dai,

    Well done here, sir! This was a strong post that followed a natural pacifying progression that was quite calming and fulfilling to read; especially after such a hard day of sitting around doing nothing. The overlying frame of finding your purpose is a powerful topic to talk about that can at times be quite risky; as we often feel that a life of purpose cannot be achieved by a high school student who lives in such a mundane fashion.
    I must applaud your flawless grammar and eloquent writing style – as these are the first things that I tend to notice. Not even with my most stingy eye was I able to spot errors, so clearly a lot of love went into this. Your tone can be described as conversational; and surprisingly, I love it. As an actor, I’m sure you spend a lot of time working on the way you sound, and so this is the type of writing that would be extremely well suited to being spoken.
    For improvement, I have two suggestions. I loved the unifying theme of purpose, but I think you should’ve taken it one step further. This would be even more magical if you directly used the symbol of a compass or other direction / purpose ideas to show your personal connection to purpose and direction. I’d like you to take a look at a piece by Mr. Luca Rios, as he is a master of the theme of light within this piece:
    https://aphunniblog.edublogs.org/2019/09/26/the-bringer-of-light/
    Also, I would recommend you to provide a more specific example of how you’ve found purpose in your own life.
    Regardless Mr. Dai, this is a great first post and I look forward to seeing your inevitably exponential growth in the very near future.

    Sincerely,

    Mr. Zaid

    1. Dear Mr. Zaid,

      Thank you for taking your time to read my blog. It is an honour to receive feedback that is honest and strong. I truly appreciate your input; you are my role model as a critique as the way you comment helps me understand how I should improve and what I did well.

      I have read Mr. Luca’s post about the Bringer of Light and I understand how strong my piece can become with a symbol that helps to unify the writing alongside my theme. I have also received many comments about improving my effectivity of my anecdote by providing more specific examples. I believe that I would have to write a entire philosophical paper to truly explain where my purpose resides from, but I know that I can expand on the anecdote I have already to enhance understanding of my stance. I wish to one day be able to have the necessary skills to write my story about the realization into my mission and my purpose. By further developing this piece, I know that I can take another step towards that goal.

      Again, thank you very much for reading and commenting on my blog. Ms. Hunnisett speaks very highly of you and I am delighted to be able to apply your ideas on improvement in my piece.

      Sincerely,

      Dai

  3. Dear Dai,

    The day you spoke about your this I believe I knew that I had to read it therefore I was not surprised by how amazing this pieces was. I could feel the emotion in this piece and the way you crafted your sentences is wonderfully done. I chose this as my optional response because I knew you were a great writer based on your discussions in class and was anxious to read your piece. Your transitions in particular were well done as your ending perfectly melded and started your next paragraph were near perfect. The description was amazing, I could almost see the entire story as I read it.

    For improvement I suggest that you remember the topic at hand. While your story was wonderfully done and you stated your belief, you only briefly touched on it. When you tell your experiences expand on it and tell us how you slowly realized your “This I Believe”.

    Your are a great writer and I know you will get better with experience. You captured the essence of your story and told it thoroughly and interesting way. I look forward to your future writing and can’t wait for our improvements.

    Sincerely,
    Harsh

    1. Dear Harsh,

      Thank you Harsh. It is very amusing to see our friendship in grade 5 develop like this and bring us together again. It brings me such happiness. Anyways, thank you for your time into reading my blog and commenting. I truly appreciate the effort that you put into this.

      I am glad that I was able to hold this blog together as this blog used to be a whole mess of different beliefs, anecdotes, themes and such. Thank you for the thoughtful ideas on improvement. I will surely look into introducing more ways to connect my anecdote to my belief and to show the realization into my purpose. It seems that it is a consensus that I need to improve this area in order to establish deeper understanding for readers.

      Again, thank you for your time. These comments are truly valuable and I am excited to apply modifications to my blog to improve my writing. I cannot wait to embark on this journey in ELA AP with you and establish “our” improvements as we progress.

      Sincerely,

      Dai

  4. Dear Dai,

    Wow, this was a very powerful piece you’ve written here Dai!! I feel like this is a very common thought that most kids in our generation think about, and I am glad that you have addressed this in your blog.

    First things first, you have a very flawless and unique way of writing that draws in your audience as well as piquing their interest. You use blunt and somewhat cold sentences to get to your point without beating around the bush, and I really admire that abut you. No sugarcoating. You have a variety of sentence structures which just adds unto your already flawless work.

    I think that you could have elaborated on some ideas, you have a tendency to mention a universal idea and then state your personal experience without fully relating it to the human condition.

    Overall, amazing job! I am excited to read more of your work in the future.

    Sincerely,
    Debbs

    1. Dear Debbie,

      Thank you for your insight and thoughtful comment. I cannot express enough gratitude; these comments are sure to make me grow as a writer.

      I am delighted to hear that I have a unique way of writing because I have always struggled with finding my voice in writing. I will make sure that I add improvements to my anecdote and how it relates to the human condition. I have received similar comments for improvement from everybody that has commented so far. It must be an outstanding area that I can improve upon and I cannot but feel excited to improve my piece.

      Again, thank you for your time and effort. I truly appreciate your deliberate word choices that help my understanding of my areas of improvement. I hope to write more pieces that are much stronger than this blog in the future; please be excited Debbie! I, myself, cannot wait to read more of your writing as well.

      Sincerely,
      Dai

  5. Dear Dai,

    This piece is very well organized and I loved how you transitioned from different anecdotes so smoothly. Every story you mentioned was relevant to your belief. I also enjoyed the full circle moment; you started off with your belief/question, explained how you got it, and ended with an in depth explanation of your belief. This piece related to me a lot because I too often think about my own purpose in life. I loved the lines, “Without any insight into what I wanted to do, I became worried that I was wasting time with my limited life; that I was not fulfilling my mission as a living being. I began my search for my own purpose, to find the role I have in the world today.”

    I think that you could improve on expanding more on your ideas to give the reader more context. For example, in the second paragraph, you could give the reader more insight about your family life as you were growing up. This would help with establishing the atmosphere and mood of the piece. This is also something I struggle with, so I recommend assuming that the reader know nothing about your life. This mindset forces you to look at your piece from an outsider’s point of view, and helps eliminate confusion.

    Overall, I really enjoyed this piece as felt so connected, like we were simply having a conversation. I’m looking forward to reading more of your writing in the future, and also getting to know you in class.

    Sincerely,
    Neha

    1. Dear Neha,

      Thank you for your input for my piece! Your comment will create a large difference on my side and I hope that mine did the same for you as well.

      Thank you for acknowledging my anecdotes and the transitions as I originally struggled to pull these ides together. I love your recommendation on the mindset as a writer as I have never come to that state of mind. This is truly clever as it gives me a fundamental understanding on how much I should elaborate on my anecdotes in order to fully utilize them for the unifying theme in the text.

      Again thank you for your time and consideration that has went in to your comment. I hope to improve as a writer so that I could match you. I too, am excited for what is to come for us in the coming years. I believe that this was a great way to get to know each other!

      Sincerely,

      Dai

  6. Dear Dai,

    I was quite curious to see what you have written considering how powerful your speech was, and to be honest I was quite delighted to see how you put such a powerful and important story into a short blog. I really liked how you had quite a few short and to the point sentences. I feel as though they really benefited your piece. I was happy to learn that you did find your purpose at such a young age and to see the transformation of someone who didn’t do any extracurriculars to someone puts a lot of effort into the one you did join. Furthermore, I think the usage of asking tough questions was a really great addition and made me, the reader, stop and reflect on what I was seeing.

    Something to improve on would be going a bit more in-depth. I understand that you underwent a significant change in your life but you did not go into as much depth as I expected. I wanted to learn more about this transformation and how you realized that drama was your passion. Lastly, I agree with Zaid on adding more information about the compass and how it relates to you. I feel as though there’s an excellent opportunity for symbolism but you just have to elaborate one it.

    Altogether this truly is a powerful piece that I feel as though I and many other existentialists can relate to. I am really looking forward to seeing what else you will write about!

    Sincerely, Sarafina

    1. Dear Sarafina,

      Thank you for your invaluable comment; I am filled with gratitude that you chose my blog to do your optional. Your comment will surely become a powerful stepping stone for me as a writer when I edit this piece for improvement.

      I am very happy that you found my short blog powerful as I had trouble unifying my theme and my anecdotes (the draft was much longer). I will surely elaborate my anecdote further as I also believe that I was missing some of my story about finding my purpose and mission. The excellent idea of using a compass as a consistent symbolic item would absolutely improve my writing-I am excited to implement this in my piece.

      Again, thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and your kindness to give this writing a read and a comment. I deeply appreciate the time you have spent to write this. I will make sure that this blog becomes the best that it can through comments like yours. Sarafina, I hope that we get to talk about existentialism one day as I am also very fond of its philosophy,

      Sincerely,

      Dai

Leave a Reply to daimat Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *