Zoey+A’s+Final+AmEx+Speech+2016


 * LIVE **

This past year, unlike any other, I have struggled. Everything from schoolwork, to family, even to doing the things I love have presented me with nothing but difficulty. Quite simply, I have had a hard time surviving. Carrying with you the stress of such struggle, day after day, can lead one to question: ‘What’s the point?’ Once you’ve found yourself in the position of asking this dreaded question, the inevitable answer will probably be: There is no point.

Let’s pay a visit to the future for a moment. The year is 3000 and we are probably all dead. Okay, now back to the present. The future sucks right? I mean, how are we supposed to be happy, functional people when we know that we will soon be dead, and everything we do serves no purpose whatsoever besides occupying our minds and bodies until the end of life as we know it? Well, the great paradox in finding meaning in absolutely nothing means that, by default, there is meaning in absolutely everything.

When pondering our human life, the most frequently-asked question is: Why? Why am I alive? Why am I myself and not someone else? Why am I so plagued by such questions? Why do I feel the need to ask them in the first place? The complexities of a curious mind are so overwhelming sometimes, it’s nearly impossible to create answers without ending up with additional questions.

Now, looking at life in nature, such as a flower, one doesn’t usually gaze upon it’s petals thinking “Why?” One looks at a flower and thinks “A flower, how beautiful.” We have such a deep, simple understanding of life all around us, it’s time we start thinking of ourselves the same way, and, most importantly, living accordingly.

Right now, we’re all being told to start thinking about colleges to apply to, careers to work toward, and what we want to do with the rest of our existences. Nothing makes me more sick to my stomach than doing just that. In fact, it goes against my very moral philosophy.

To quote Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, “ We live as if we were never going to die, and die as if we had never lived.” This is a major problem for our well-beings. We, as humans and as Americans, can’t keep frantically reaching for the future when, in reality, we may not even be there when it arrives. We can’t keep thinking that striving for more personal gain is the reason to live, building up our coveted American dream of bigger homes and fancier technology until we die. We can’t keep focusing on what we want in life, instead, we must focus on life itself.

If each person in America took just a moment to see and appreciate the overwhelming masterpiece of LIFE that surrounds us at all times, we wouldn’t be so discontent with the bodies we occupy or the institutions we subscribe to, and we will all be one step closer to living. To truly, freely, and effortlessly, living.


 *  Articles Referenced for Research **

[|Why Contemplating Death Changes How You Think]
[|Paulo Coelho Quote]