As an atheist I have over the years found myself searching for how I can make my life meaningful. I’ve never been religious so its always been a case of asking the question “Where does meaning in life come from?”. When I was in my teens I thought it was about setting goals and achieving them. I am one of the fortunate people who turns out to be good at this. So now that I’ve achieved the goals I set out in my teens its time for new goals right? This is where I got stuck.

See the goals in my teen years was go to university, graduate and get a good job but these things didn’t give my life meaning. Toward the end of university I decided that maybe life was about experiences. I got into rock climbing and caving. I had a casual no strings attached relationship for a little while. I accepted a job offer which brought me to Seattle. At that point life was going pretty well.

I met my current partner about 2-3 months before I left the country. We met through a friend who also liked him but was shy, quiet and socially awkward. Sparks flew right away. I was afraid of hurting him or myself and was hesitant to get involved. We fell in love pretty quickly and before long I was gone.

When I left I realised how important people are to my life. The happiness of the people I love is important to me. I felt so relieved when my boyfriend moved over here to live with me. I hurt so much being separated from him and from my friends that I’ve had for so many years. Perhaps people is where I draw meaning from in my life. I have always found myself trying to help my friends and support them when they are in troubled times. To celebrate their happiness. I have always been an extrovert and my people are important to me.

It turns out that living in the United States of America is something that can make me angry about so much. Back home I could just laugh and say “Silly American polititians” but now that I live here and the laws of this country apply to me also I can’t help but have my blood boil over the politics of this country. I get angry about the widening gap between the rich and the poor. I get angry about the creationists who think they have some right to debate fact with fiction and try and get fairy tales into science class. I get angry that 48 of the 50 Miss United States contestants said evolution should not be taught in schools. I get angry at polititions wanting to redefine rape and take away a woman’s right to an abortion even when her life is in danger. So maybe people bring meaning to my life.

Living in the northwest I see a lot of beauty in what surrounds me. I ride my bike and go hiking a lot. This is a beautiful part of the world. I never saw snow before I got here. Climate change is a scientific fact just like evolution. Perhaps slightly less supported than evolution but even I can see the way things are changing. Ice caps have measurably decreased. More frequent extreme weather conditions in many parts of the world. That so many can see this and so few are doing anything to reduce the impact of humanity on the environment is staggering to me. We have just one planet like we each have just one life. How can we throw it all away for the sake of convenience? Maybe nature gives my life meaning.

I would like to spend my life being able to call myself a humanist, existentialist and a naturalist. I feel that to worship any god would be a waste of the one life I get to live. To adhere to any doctrine that limits my or anyone else’s ability to experience this world in the way we each decide that we want to is a crime against life. I think my direction from this point forward is to experience what I can, help who I can and do whatever I can to help the environment. These are the things which are important to me. This is what I derive my sense of meaning from. How about you?