Will+B’s+2016+OpEd+Article

= What are We doing? =



“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide” – Albert Camus

When I look at my school I see my friends and fellow students go through the motions. Many of them are worried about college and stress over the importance of getting through their high school days with enough extracurriculars. They are only seeking to get life over with quicker. They seek a better life, I don’t blame them, but at the expense of any true understanding why they live.

I fall short in this respect too. But my fault is that I often lack the will to verbalize my existence. But it is about time that I do.

I am no saint, but I try. I love school, but I love it not for its ability to rush me through life faster, but the joy that is learning and the experience it provides. I will stress over college, but I also am more passionately pulled towards my approach towards life. I care that I am a Christian Existentialist. I value my time meditating, praying, reading the Bible, reading Kierkegaard, and pondering the reason for existence. I will approach life with the mindset of curiosity and let it define who I am. No amount of schoolwork will define who I am. Nor will any career goal or dream college get in the way of existence.

But on the other hand I will not be apathetic to life, nor completely disregard school. The passion that we find in life is often interwoven within school and apathy is no excuse for lousy philosophy.

And I wonder if my classmates and friends are like me and have a hard time expressing this aspect of their life, or maybe they would rather die soon then truly live. I want to pro ve Camus wrong. I want to embrace the absurdity of life with “the passion of the infinite” that Kierkegaard proclaims.

But very few souls in the school I go to hold any of this authenticity to live beyond the daily grind of survival.

And when I look at my school I wonder if my friends will even care. Whether it matters to them if they live or die.