How should one live ?

A lot of my friends call me either "a philosopher" or even "a grandma." This has a lot to do with the concepts and themes that I usually ponder over. Such philosophical questions as "What is the meaning of life?" "What do people live for?" "How should one live?" floats around in my head. After such questions tail one after the other, eventually I end up with the most silly, but an important question : "Why am I thinking about this?"

There's a famous saying: "Germans die spending all their lives only on thinking, how one should live, while French just enjoy their lives." As soon as I heard this sentence I thought to myself that I should stop being a "German" and start being a "French!" However, to make an excuse that my major is german, I find myself becoming more "german-like" as the time goes.

I remember the time when I was in primary and secondary school. Well, to be precise, I don't exactly remember what I did at that time (although I do, those were only just normal school life like having lesseons and taking a break etc.); the things that I can still think back on is how I felt about “living” and over what kind of things I was worried about. At that time, the focus of my thoughts was usually not on me, instead it was mostly on the relationship between my friends and family. Such concerns I had at that time were of course not very easy and they are still not easy. There are even books which teaches us how to get along well with the others. However, in my opinion, there’s a huge difference between centralising the thoughts on the connection and on the person itself.

No one can deny the fact that every single person in the world is different. Not even twins share the exact same genes. Therefore, it is lucid that everyone has distictive personality and cherishes different values in their lives. However, as the word “society” tells us, human beings are social animal. Despite the fact that we all wish for different things and that we all have different goals, to fit in the society people follow certain rules which I would like to define as “law of relationship.” One should be honest, understanding and caring to keep a consistent bond. Although this is not written on the present constitution, people follow this as if it is a law. This is why I regard it more concering to focus on oneself than the relationship. Whereas laws don’t easily change, persons feelings and goals change every blink of their eye.

Now that I am an adult, compared to the time I was in primary and secondary school, where I hardly had any responsibility, I’ve got to plan out my own future. And that process requires to look closely on myself. Would it be possible to come up with one solution to how one should live? Or is it actually necessary to define how to live? No matter what I contemplate now, there’s one crucial thing I should keep in mind : I would never be able to dominate or manipulate “time.”