Episode 2: Purpose in Action

“The purpose of life is a life of purpose” – Robert Byrne

In this week’s blog post, we have asked 10 people who have impacted our lives 3 questions:

1) What is your purpose right now? 

2) What’s something in quarantine you’ve done that has impacted your community? 3) What is something you can do in the coming weeks to better your community?

As we embark deeper into quarantine, we want to give other young people the opportunity to explore their purpose and share their experiences. We desire to continue to show that any person no matter how young or old, is able to make a difference and use their purpose to make our world a better place. 

Below are answers from the three questions above from 10 young people who have used their purpose or made an effort to make a difference in the world. 

Jordyn (Freshman, Maple Grove Senior High) 

1. My purpose is to always be a person who brings my family and friends up when they feel down. 
2. One way that I have used my purpose to heal my community is by decorating the front window of my house with symbols of love to resemble that we are all in this together. 
3. One way that I can bring more kindness into my community in the future is by helping out an elder or anyone who is unable to get groceries, and delivering the food and essential materials they need.

Mary (Senior, Visitation)

1. My purpose is to continue continuing on, finding structure and value in the time I’ve been given. My purpose is to help others remember that they are valuable, present, loved, and worthy. My purpose is to strive to find passion, purpose, and presence in order to impact my community positively. 
2. I believe the little things can make an impactful difference. During this time, many are not only physically and socially isolated but emotionally too. So, I’ve been sending decorated letters to my friends and family to check-in. Additionally, my friends and I have been trying to take advantage of the advanced technology surrounding us; we’ve been vlogging to each other and scheduling zoom calls, including one over which we had “prom”. 
3. Though I miss my friends, teachers, classmates, coaches, teammates, and relatives, I feel very blessed to get to spend this bonus time with my family. We’ve been taking  this quality time together to bond; we play cards, walk the dogs, cook, and complete projects. For our next project/goal, we are planning to work on being more environmentally conscious. We are going to start a weekly challenge based on environmental benefits; we are also studying to start composting. In conclusion, while I’m striving to focus on showing love to those around me, I’m also striving to show love to the earth!

Sid (Freshman, Hopkins North Junior High) 

1. I think that my purpose currently is to share stories that mean a lot to me. I have always wanted to be a director since I believe that movies are the best ways for stories to be heard. My purpose could change in the future, but sharing sentimental stories is something I never want to stop doing.
2. One act of kindness I have given to my community is a wooden ping pong table I built for my neighbors and I to play. The table is one step I took to make a difference in my community. 
3. One way that I can help my community is by continuing to share stories that can inspire others and the people around me.

Joey (Freshman, Edina High School)

1. My purpose and what I strive for is to make other people happy. Not just the people close to me, just anybody I can. I just want to have a positive impact on as many people as I can and I want to do everything I can to make people’s lives better. My purpose is to put other people’s happiness before my own, and just to do my best to benefit other people in every way I can.
2. I have impacted the community by spreading positivity in this time where it’s clearly needed.
3. I can better the community by just doing little things to try and make someone’s day. Just like holding the door for people and smiling at people walking by and small stuff like that.

Jacob (Senior, Saint Thomas Academy)

1. My purpose right now is to have as much fun as possible and try to be happy in our current worlds state. I’m also working on catching up on a bunch of movies to watch, while also working on editing my own movie!” {Farley Films youtube channel}
2. “Something I’ve done that impacted my community is very small, but I’ve been coming up with some activities for my friends and I to do electronically together so we can still be together and have fun, yet social distance ourselves. 
3. Something I can do to better the community is to be nicer to people and try to spread more love because that’s what the world needs right now.

Brenna (Freshman, Maple Grove Senior High)

1. My purpose is to always be optimistic and provide positive energy wherever I am.
2. One way that I have impacted my community is simply by staying home. I have been social distancing from friends and family in order to keep myself and my community as safe as possible.
3.  One way I can make the world a better place is by reaching out to friends and family around the world to check in and spread happiness and positive energy.

Sofi (Freshman, Visitation)

1. My purpose is to find ways to spread kindness to others.
2. Already, my family and I have been sewing  masks and donating them to organisations that donate them to the health care providers who are working with COVID-19 patients. Because they have run out of normal hospital masks. 
3. Something I can do to help the community is ordering/buying things for local businesses, whether it is food or just a gift card!

Seth (Freshman, Maple Grove Senior High)

1. I feel that my purpose is to make sure that I am doing the best for myself right now with everything around me. I believe I should be prioritizing my health and mental state right now, so that is what I am doing. 
2. One act of kindness that my family and I shared with my community is singing happy birthday to anyone with a birthday in my neighborhood. It was so amazing to see the faces of the people we sang to, and it felt great to do good for my community.
3. One way I can help my community in the future is by checking in with the people around me and making sure they are doing okay.

Ran (Student at University of Israel)

1. My purpose is to always keep my family safe.
2. One act of kindness that I have given is the private lessons I lead in English and math for children.
3. One thing I can do to help my own community in Israel is to help elders with getting groceries and medications.

Isabella (8th grade, St. Thomas More)

1. My purpose right now is finishing 8th grade and moving on to the next step which is high school. From there is my journey to begin helping my community, and the rest of the world in different ways.  
2. I’ve bettered the community by taking responsibility for staying inside and not going out to public places with other people, so as not risking to put others in danger.
3. To continue to make my community better I can help those who don’t have money for food because of unemployment and provide them the necesites they need.

All of these writings are examples of how anyone can make the world a better place. Each person has a different view, and way of shining their light. Every one of us can make a difference in others lives by using our individual purposes to spread more kindness. These are just a few examples of how anyone is able to make a ripple. We challenge you to think about your answer to the same three questions the 10 people above answered, and live your own answers out through this upcoming week. Use this second post of ours for inspiration to grow in your purpose, and decide how you are able to create your own ripple. After all, “The purpose of life is a life of purpose”.