Many people may not agree with my life philosophy, which is perfectly fine, since I simply can’t agree with many of their’s. My whole philosophy revolves around my idea of an afterlife, or how to create an afterlife for one’s self.
No philosophy can apply to everyone, since in a sense; we all begin our lives as unmolded clay; our life experiences and upbringings will shape our morals and way of life. Someone who grows up in a wealthy family will have different morals than someone who grew up with very little money; just like someone who grew up with a loving family will have a different way of life than someone who didn’t.
Keeping this in mind, it is evident why many people do not agree with my philosophy, since it is greatly based on accomplishment and less on finding inner peace by living an honest life.
To begin explaining my philosophy I shall point out the first factor that would shape my way of life, and the lives of others with similar philosophies. My family is not very religious; they’ve always allowed me to believe in whatever I thought to be right, and throughout most of my life I’ve found it hard to believe that there is an afterlife. Without anyone to tell me otherwise my philosophy gradually twisted around this fact, since I’m a person that needs evidence to determine whether something is real or not. I eventually came to the conclusion that if there wasn’t an afterlife, the only way to truly live on would be by making a lasting impression on society. You must make a difference, make life better for future generations and simply make yourself known.
Though everyone experiences death of loved ones and family, this was a large factor in the shaping of my values. A few months after my grandfather’s death, after funerals and dealing with his possessions, I began to notice a lapse in memory. People were forgetting. We began to talk about him less and less and eventually I’d go weeks without even thinking about him. What a shame…a wonderful, giving man like my grandfather, a war veteran none the less, already forgotten, even by loved ones. I came to the realization that even good, kind people can’t escape the fate of being forgotten, of disappearing, and I do not, under any circumstances, want to end up like them. But how to escape this fate, that of disappearing, as if you were never there to begin with?
This brings me to my third factor, one of mere chance, that I am an only child. Though not always true, only and eldest children are most likely to want to impress and accomplish. I was no exception; I always want my work to be perfect and adore praise from others (more or less). Anyways, my striving to succeed lead me to realize that if I really accomplish something and truly make a lasting impression on the world, I would not be forgotten completely, not even by complete strangers. Names like Dostoyevsky and Beethoven, they shall never disappear. Maybe I could become one of them. With great accomplishments comes greatness, a greatness everyone is born with but only few know how to let shine through. Whatever talent you have, whatever passions you have, follow that to greatness. You must use it to make that one great accomplishment and make yourself known. The one thing I can never tolerate is people who are wasting their lives, unhappy people who’ve never let their talents shine through or tried to create a better future for themselves, or even worse, people who don’t make an effort.
If your passion is music, take up an instrument, if your passion is literature, write a novel, if your passion is sports, join a sports team, it’s really quite simple if you just start out small.
Maybe I exaggerated before, it isn’t completely necessary to become a “Beethoven”, but at least try. Even if you aren’t a world renowned musician by the time you die, you can still have left something on this earth that people remember you for, a lasting impression. A lot of great artists are actually only recognized for their greatness after death, so of course, not all efforts go unheard of.
To sum things up, for a lot of people, merely bringing happiness to others is accomplishment enough, but I guess I’m just not that humble. I deeply and truly respect those people who have these kinds of morals, but in a sense, I can’t agree. Before I pass on, I’d like to have truly left my mark on this earth, and I sincerely hope that anyone who makes an effort can accomplish this as well.