Christine Prevolos
High School Honorable Mention
Illinois

Meaning of Life

     With so many different people in our world today, there are so many different beliefs. There are Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, and millions of others all with millions of different perceptions on life. The meaning of life is not only interpreted through religion, but also through each individual person. The way I see life can be explained as a bus route. Each person is a bus and living is just a stop on the way of a greater journey.
     I never really thought of life or the meaning of it until this summer. August was the month my Yiayia (grandmother) died. We were very close. She would call me just to talk to me, and we would talk about to me, and we would talk about everything. She wasn't one of those yias who you didn't want to give them a hug because they smelt funny. The instant you met her you fell in love. When she died, hers was the first funeral I truly felt loss at, instead of mourning with her, I was mourning over her. That feeling of loss really made me think about life, like why are we here?
     Before her death, I had some thoughts about how you lived, died, and then you were born again as something. Most would call it reincarnation, and if you believed in reincarnation, the way that I did, it didn't really seem like there was a meaning. But at her church service the priest said something about how we are all on journeys already and life is just a stop along the way to something greater. That's what I believe now. When you're born, its not the beginning for you; it's the beginning of this short little mission called life, and when you die, it's not the end of you; it's just that whatever greater power possesses you, feels that your mission is over.
     Living is something we all go through and, in my eyes, it is just a period of preparation for greater things to come after death.

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