For as long as I can remember, one question keeps surfacing that does not seem to have a cut and dry answer: What is the meaning of life? Douglas Adams entertains the quest of a meaning for life in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, only to produce the answer forty-two. While forty-two is a concrete answer in many respects, it is not the answer someone expects when searching for an almost profound answer. I believe that the meaning of life has no single solid answer, in many ways, the meaning of life continues to evolve as we have different encounters and experiences. Over the course of generations, the values and terms of a successful life have shifted dramatically. The baby boomer generation viewed success as having a family, a home, …show more content…
While I have loved being able to connect with family and friends across the country and around the world, social media is also a large contributor to my own battles of unhappiness. When I was a freshman in high school, there were pictures of me taken without my knowledge and spread on social media. I became incredibly unhappy and felt an enormous amount of guilt over something I had no control over. I had only been on social media for less than a year and I experienced one of the more negative uses of it. There were so many questions I had and almost as though someone had flipped a switch, I was struggling to appreciate the good things in my life. A common phrase is that to take some time and stop to smell the roses, in short, appreciate the little things in life. This phrase kept creeping into my thoughts and as the years have gone on, I have recognized the bad and good things social media can do, more importantly, I learned that the good things are not always trapped within a …show more content…
However, they are only a small part to look at when discussing the meaning of life. Experiences are just as influential as the emotions they produce. While everyone has unique experiences, we often share similar life events. A popular major life event in childhood is moving. Whether it is a friend moving or yourself, to a new city or even state or just down the block, almost everyone can recall a time where this took place. As a kid, my family moved around every few years. I was only a year old the first time my family moved, and according to my mom I cried the whole car ride while my sister chanted, “Michigan,” over and over from Tucson, AZ to Fenton, MI. The last time my family moved, I was seven years old when it was announced we would be moving from Michigan to North Dakota. This move was the most impactful as I had been in school the last few years and realized I would have to leave my friends as well as increasing the distance between our extended family. After reluctantly packing, we loaded into the car and began the drive to the next chapter of our lives. Moving to North Dakota had a large influence on the person I have grown up to be. We moved during the 2008 economic crisis and I know I would not have had the opportunities I did had we stayed where we