Alison Mitchell: As young people living in the 21st century, there can be a lot of pressure to find your purpose in life, whether this be in the form of choosing a specific major or profession or meeting certain standards that have been set by yourself or by society. But trying to find one specific purpose or calling in life may not be the most helpful or healthy approach, as sometimes it can take time to find your purpose, your purpose might change, or you might not feel called to a certain purpose at all. After all, who said that human life had to have a specific purpose?

Hello and welcome to the final episode of Through Their Eyes, a podcast that shares the stories that shape perspective. I’m your host, Alison Mitchell, and today I’ll be interviewing Veronica Dixon and Eli Peres about whether or not they think that human life has to have a specific purpose.

Mitchell (cont): I’ll just have you say your name, your grade, your pronouns,
and then I’ll get started with questions.

Veronica Dixon: I’m Veronica Dixon, I am a sophomore, I’m in 10th grade, and I use any pronouns.

Eli Peres: Um, I’m Eli, 11th grade, he/him.

Mitchell: Do you think that humans have to have a specific purpose in their lives?

Dixon: I think that, not really. I feel like, if you were like, called to a certain like, purpose or a certain thing, that’s like, really amazing, but I don’t think that each person was like, born with like, they’re going to do one thing and they like, it’s inevitable that they’re going to do that thing.

Peres: I don’t think so. I think you don’t really need a purpose because we can create our own, and by having one, [it] kind of defeats the point of living your own life.

Mitchell: Do you think that most people would agree with your opinion? Do you think that the society we live in preaches the same message or do you think that it’s different?

Dixon: I don’t know. I honestly feel like if I were to like, ask like, 100 people that question, I think I would probably get, you know, about half and half answers about like, yes, everybody has a purpose, no, nobody has a purpose. Um, just because I think that like, it can mean something so different to so many different people that like, if you were asking one person if they have a purpose, they could think it would be like, religious or they might think it would be like curing cancer or doing something like, really amazing. Um, but then some people will be like, no, I don’t think that somebody was like, just born to be a photographer or something.

Mitchell: Mhm.

Dixon: So I think that it would be kind of 50/50.

Peres: Um, I don’t know. I think it’s a pretty split issue, obviously. But I think a lot of people think that they’re meant to just kind of live their lives the way that they’ve always thought. So I don’t think I think a lot of people would disagree with the idea that we just can do whatever we want, no matter what. But I feel like also, there are a lot of different reasons why they disagree.

Mitchell: Do you think that purpose is something you’re born with or something you have to find?

Dixon: I think it’s definitely something that you find. I think that a lot of the times when a person is born, they’re kind of like a blank slate. And I think that like, you inherit some stuff from your family and, you know, you find some stuff from like, your friends and the people that you grow up with. And, you know, as a person becomes a person, the things that they’re really passionate about, like, sort of develop.

Mitchell: Mhm.

Dixon: And like, they change, you know.

Peres: Um, I think you definitely have to find it. There’s, you know, because you can be whoever you want, you know, [and it] doesn’t really…anything could change how your life ends up.

Mitchell: So yeah, do you think people’s purposes change?

Dixon: Yeah.

Mitchell: Do you think that people can have multiple purposes?

Dixon: I mean, if you were to ask me, like, now, what do I think my purpose is? And then asked me in 10 years, I think would probably be different, because I think as your like, life progresses and you go on living and you kind of gain more experience and more perspective, you can really like, have a change in perspective. And I think that perspective sometimes really does influence your purpose.

Peres: Yeah, definitely. I definitely think it could change over time. You know, at one point, you could, you know, want to be like an engineer, and then you could find out that it’s super boring and just do something else.

Mitchell: Why does it matter or not matter if human life has meaning? Like, is it important that human life has meaning or is it not?

Dixon: I would say that having meaning can be really, really important to somebody. Um, but, I wouldn’t say that it is crucial. I wouldn’t say that if you didn’t have meaning, you would just be like, unable to do anything. I think that having meaning can give you sort of a lot. But I think that if you are just kind of like, whatever, you can, like, you’re still a person and you’re still you know, doing stuff. And I think that sometimes people with meaning, don’t, you know, feel so great either.

Peres: I think it’s important to some people, but I think as a total, no, it’s not very important. I, you know, I feel like humans are gonna want to progress no matter what. So, you know, we will have that innate drive to do stuff.

Mitchell: Once again, I’m your host, Alison Mitchell. Thanks for listening to the final episode of Through Their Eyes, a podcast that shares the stories that shape perspective. If you haven’t already, make sure to check out the previous episodes of Through Their Eyes and stay tuned to The Rubiconline for more podcast content coming soon.

Music credits:
“Abstract Science” Coma Media (pixabay.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/