2/1 -- Finding a Purpose

The following is reposted from a comment on one of my most frequently visited websites, reddit.com. If you don't feel like reading the whole post, at least scroll down to the last paragraph. It sums up my reasoning for applying to the Peace Corps.

Enjoy.
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original text here

Hey man. Let me introduce you to some people.

This guy right here is Charles Price. I met him when I was out wandering around Baltimore last year. He was outside of a school, where he had just got done cleaning the damn floors. He's the vice president of a tiny janitorial service. In a million years, no one will remember the name Charles Price. But that guy was happy as hell to be cleaning some floors, because it meant something to someone whether he knew them or not. Some kid came to a clean school with adequate lighting and a place to play after lunch, and their educational experience was probably better because of it. To this day, I still carry his business card around with me because his passion for life and his business really inspired me.

Now let me introduce you to this guy. Again, another dude I found walking around Baltimore. He owned a tavern on the most run-down, terrible street in the West End. He said he was lucky if he got four or five patrons a night, but dammit if they didn't go home with some liquor in their gut and a smile on their face at the end of the night. His meager little tavern made people happy. Gave them an opportunity to get together and mope about the shittiness in their lives and support each other, and then be on with it. No one will remember this guy when he's gone, either. But the lives he touched in some form are more than likely better because of him.

And then there's this guy, and his cat Rosie. He's got a whole mess of cats, and he and his SO live to take care of these things. He was the happiest guy I had ever met, and he was so excited to show me his cats. He may not touch many human lives, but to those cats he is like a god. His happiness comes from effecting some sort of change and life into a bunch of strays and alley cats. And for him, that's all he needs. If they're happy, he's happy. They get a shot at a life of chasing mates and playing in garbage that they wouldn't have had if some anonymous schmuck hadn't come along and given them some scraps and a warm place to sleep.

The ones that really got me, though, were these young ladies. They're growing up and living amongst gang violence, police surveillance, the drug trade, and the financial and "spiritual" decay of their neighborhood. Not a night goes by that someone isn't shot, or the police chopper isn't shining its light into their windows looking for some crack fiend. But because of a young art school graduate who put her money into opening a community center, these girls are getting a second chance. They're not pushing drugs or playing watch-out for their brothers. They're cleaning up vacant lots, rehabilitating the broken facades of old, abandoned homes. They're learning skills that will help them pass on a better future to the next generation. And they're just a bunch of 12 and 13 year old girls. They're not rich. They're not famous. But they're doing something that will have a bigger impact than starring in a movie or writing a book. They're taking one woman's good deed and passing it on for the benefit of the next generation of girls and boys who will have a safer, friendlier neighborhood to grow up in. They are redefining the future!

The point in me showing you these people is that you look at them, and they're just as isolated and minuscule in the grand scheme of things as any of us. The only difference is that they're okay with their place in the grand nothingness of our amazing, unlikely existence! You want to put your life in perspective? Get out there and talk to strangers. Meet new people. Connect your life with others, and you'll find that purpose you think you lack.

Your life, your place here on this world may not seem very important to you in the context of the modern age: you're not a celebrity, or a world leader, or a famous writer or in a band (as far as I know) — but your living in some way affects some other seemingly meaningless, equally detached person or persons. These people are happy with the purpose they have carved for themselves, and that's what you have to do: you have to find a purpose. Like Steve Martin in "The Jerk."

Find one. Bury yourself in it. Make what you do count not because you'll be remembered for it by a bunch of people you'll never meet in a future you'll never see, but because it makes things better for all the other lucky sods that get to spend this period in time with you. You are a pebble dropped into a lake, and the splash you make now — however big or small — will ripple on far beyond the foreseeable future. You only get one shot at this. Don't waste it worrying about things you can't really control.