Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

By Fabian Boie, M.S.

I always stopped and wondered every time I was at the end of a significant period in my life, such as a summer vacation, my high school years, my last week in college, before moving to a new city, country or continent for that matter. It is something about the idea of closing a chapter in your life and moving forward to new and unknown horizons that always captured my thinking and attention. I sometimes ask people around me who share similar experiences- Do you have memories from your first job, or your first apartment, or maybe your last week in college? Do you recall moments when you realized you had to go “out there” and find a new job, a new challenge, a new place in the grand scheme of life?

Lately I started experiencing those feelings again as I approach the end of my doctoral program. In a few weeks, I will complete my graduate program coursework and will start looking for an internship. I close again a chapter in my life and open a new one. I feel that mixture of wonder and gratitude after four years of hard work and sacrifices. Today I choose to stop from my daily rush and contemplate for a second this transition and share my thoughts in a blog.

We rarely take the time to really look at these life transitions and notice the changes that took place in our ways of thinking, our relationships, our values and habits. For example, getting married, leaving your family and moving out, finishing writing a book, etc., are major phases in one’s life. I believe in those moments we should take a closer look and get in touch with ourselves, our thoughts, emotions, and beliefs. I think that during these significant transitions in life we are more receptive and in touch with reality, if we allow enough time for it. However, why should we wait 10 years to realize that the career ladder we strived to climb was not leaning against the right wall? Why should we try at all costs to make others happy and realize one day how irrational it was? Why should we strive to fit a certain body image, just because it is on all magazines and billboards? Do we need all that to enjoy our lives? Then why wait for a stroke of insight to realize that?

Unless you find the strength to slow down and think for yourself before jumping to a new phase in your life, you may replace one illusion with another, one addiction for another. We start every day anew; with gratitude and wonder. So let us ask ourselves the big questions posed by Gauguin in his painting: Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

The answers may guide you in the next chapter of your life. See you there!