this evening, a friend and i were having a conversation over nothing in particular. feeling slightly bored, i decided to throw in a question to make things interesting- as you do. the question i asked was: what's your goal in life?
he was quite taken aback. as was i, when i realised that i didn't really have an answer. how could this be? i reached into all the things that hold up declarations from my past.
- my decision in yr 12 to live the rest of my life filled with passion and compassion.
- a quotation by Erma Bombeck, "When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me'."
- another decision made at the start of university to be obedient to God's calling for my life.
these are ways of living, yes, but i guess they are not true goals? somehow 2 Timothy 4:7 comes to mind: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (NIV)
is it... to be happy? (no.) to have the highest GPA? (no.) to be rich? (no!) to be the best surgeon in the world? (err... no.)
so i wonder, how important is it to have a goal? and does it make any difference between living and existing...?
home/zoo update:
this evening i caved. i was waiting for my family to finish eating dinner so that i could wash up, and asked if there was anything i could do in the mean while. there was- maggie needed to be fed. so i grudgingly got out the mount barker chicken and proceeded to lay bite-sized pieces at his feet. and as for dad, he has decided that maggie is a real loser amongst the birds of our suburb, based on maggie's particularly bad hairstyle. am i alone in finding my parents' personification of a magpie somewhat bizarre?
also, somebody please tell my addled brain to stop spiking cortisol at 4am in the morning. i am not quite sure what the significance of 4am is- midnight in England? morning in Melbourne? is it too much to ask for more than 4.5 hours' worth of sleep/night?
random memory of the day:
walking to clinic with my team this morning, when one of the doctors suddenly pushed me off the path and yelled "shortcut!"
a29d53a7c7b4b6f9ab7248cdefba78ea
10 months ago
How come you had so much free time in fourth year?? I thought med students were meant to have no life. :p
ReplyDeleteAnd it's interesting to see that you say being happy is not your true goal in life - most (superficial?) writing on the matter tends to blab on about happiness.
Maybe you can tell me more about it once I finally email you back, which will probably be in a week's time - after I crawl out of the current assignment quagmire!
I guess it's all about using your time wisely- something I still need to improve on!
ReplyDeleteYes, I'd love to discuss it further with you in our next correspondence. Until then, take care & all the best with your assignments! xxx