"What Is the Essence of Life? 🤷‍♀️Searching for Meaning in a World That Keeps Moving"🚶‍♂️

Does it make any sense? You wake up, go to work, pay bills, scroll through social media, maybe hit the gym if you’re motivated enough, repeat. The world tells you to chase success, money, relationships, happiness. But at the end of the day, no matter what we achieve or how far we run, we all die. I always asked myself if the end point is death, then why do we struggle so much to give A REAL sense to our lives? Why do we seem chasing things over and over and after a certain point they seem useless, for death is our common denominator? Some people will talk about heaven/paradise, reincarnation, parallel universe, nothing after death etc but at the end of the day we will still have to die to access the other levels.

So, what’s the point?

If I have to try to answer, as a young black man living in the western world, the search for meaning feels like a constant uphill battle. The rules of life seem written by people who don’t live like me, who don’t understand the weight of cultural displacement, systemic barriers, and the endless pursuit of proving myself. But beyond race, beyond status, beyond every social construct, we all wrestle with the same question:

What is the essence of life?

Let’s break it down.

🤔Step 1: Understanding the Chaos – Are We Just Here to Survive?

From the moment we’re born, society, religion, culture, politics, economy etc. throws us into a pre-written script.

• Go to school.
• Get a job.
• Find a partner.
• Make money.
• Buy a house.
• Have kids.
• Work until retirement.
• Die.
• And if you are smart enough, try to be happy in between.

Sounds fulfilling and interesting, right?

The problem is, this formula doesn’t fit everyone, especially those of us who exist at the intersection of cultures, expectations, and ever-changing identities. Someone once told me, it takes just a minute/hour/day/month/year to change your life drastically and it seems like deconstructing all what you spent years to build. At each great intersection of your life you have to rethink your purpose on earth and check out if you are still on the right path. It is confusing at times, enough to get many people go mentally unstable.

For someone like me, trying to navigate the Western world as a Black man/minority, there’s an added layer:

• The pressure to prove yourself twice as much just to get the same respect. It is weird saying like this but you really have to show that you are worth enough to gain the recognition that is naturally given.
• The constant negotiation of identity, between where you came from and where you are. It seem like the question is determined to judge how you will be addressed and in a certain way which value you will be attributed.
• The feeling of being both visible and invisible at the same time. You are visible because of your difference and at the same time invisible because you are "Not like Us".

And still, we keep moving, evolving, striving, without knowing exactly where we’re going. We are like leaves that get carried by the wind without knowing where they will fall.

Why?

Because deep down, we hope life is about more than just survival.

😁😒Step 2: Is Life About Happiness? (And Why That’s a Trap)

Some say the essence of life is happiness.

That sounds great, until you realize happiness isn’t a destination, it’s a feeling that comes and goes. Are we really happy because we know what happiness is or are we happy because we know what sadness is?

Think about it:

• You get the job you have been praying for since, but you still feel empty, bored and lazy.
• You fall in love, promise the earth and the moon in the beginning but the high doesn’t last forever.
• You reach a goal, but then what? What comes after fulfilling the gaol, another goal? until you do not have enough energy to pursue them again?

If happiness was the goal, why does it always feel like we’re chasing something just out of reach? Like a mirage in the desert.

The truth is, happiness is temporary. If life is only about happiness, then what happens during the moments of suffering, struggle, and loss? Does life lose its meaning then? We sometimes even strive more during hard times and the loneliness and peace we are experiencing so far might be the happiness we prayed for.

Maybe, instead of chasing happiness, we should be chasing something deeper. Like what? ask yourself the question, what is deeper than being happy?

📈Step 3: Maybe It’s About Growth – The Evolution of the Self

If I’ve learned anything in this life, it’s that change is the only guarantee. That is something we cannot fight against and it is either intrinsic, extrinsic or both. It does depend on us but at the same time we are just facing and experiencing changes all around us without having any clue on how we did to reach that level.

One day, you’re one person. A year later, you’re someone else. You evolve, adapt, grow, and that’s the point. I often asked this question to people,

Are you sure you know yourself enough? The answer can be terrifying sometime.

Think about the moments when you felt truly alive:

• Not when things were easy, but when you overcame something.
• Not when everything made sense, but when you embraced the unknown.
• Not when you had all the answers, but when you kept searching anyway.

Life isn’t about staying the same, it’s about who you become in the process.

🌏Step 4: The Western World, Identity, and The Search for Belonging

For someone like me, born into one world but shaped by another, there’s always a tension between who I am and who I’m expected to be. Am I who I am because of where I found myself or because it was meant to be?

• The expectation to assimilate, but the desire to hold onto my roots.
• The pressure to succeed, but the reality of starting at a disadvantage.
• The dream of belonging, but the truth that some places will never fully accept me.

The Western world tells you to define yourself by success. But what is success? Isn't just being healthy enough to enjoy life and feel blessed?

But what if the essence of life isn’t about being something, but about becoming everything you’re capable of?

So the question now is? What are you capable of?

🤷‍♀️Step 5: So… What’s the Answer?

Here’s the truth: There is no singular essence of life. I have spent so much time trying to understand things, it helped me to shape my vision of the world, but at each point I had to rethink my perception of things, about religion, humanity, gender, race, ecosystems, success, family, friendship, relationship etc. One thing is sure, the person I was last year was different from he person I am now, but we are still the same because we share the same existence. It blows off my mind when I think about it.

Maybe life isn’t about finding meaning, but about creating it.

Maybe it’s about:
✔️ The people we impact.
✔️ The things we create.
✔️ The way we evolve.

We don’t know where we’re going. But we keep moving anyway. Where? We might not know exactly, but one thing is sure, we know where we do not want to be.

And at the end of the day, when we do die, maybe what matters isn’t that we were here, but how we lived while we were. Creating a positive impact in people's lives without losing our minds.

☯Final Thought: Keep Going, Even If You Don’t Know Where

If you’ve ever felt lost, like you’re running forward without a clear destination, you’re not alone. There is something I have learnt about collective conscience; we are all the same, think the same and behave the same to a certain extend. Just that we react differently and that difference makes us unique.

Maybe the essence of life isn’t a grand, universal truth.

Maybe it’s the journey itself.

And maybe, just maybe, that’s enough. If it is not, then share your thoughts in the comment section.

💬 What do you think? What keeps you going? Let’s talk.

References & Philosophical Insights

• Frankl, V. E. (1946). Man’s Search for Meaning.
• Camus, A. (1942). The Myth of Sisyphus.
• Nietzsche, F. (1886). Beyond Good and Evil.
• Baldwin, J. (1963). The Fire Next Time.