“What’s my life purpose?” This question has plagued me for the longest time. Like, really really plagued me…
I’ve read books, journaled for hours, done all sorts of personality tests, attended countless courses for different things and listened to numerous podcasts of different “experts” to try and answer that one question. And one morning this year, while I had some quiet time to think about a project I could work on that would bring my interests and skills together, the answer came to me. I want to save wildlife.
I want to say that this realisation was like the existential dark clouds of “I don’t know what to do with my life” parted and a massive golden ray of sunshine burst forth to illuminate my path forward, but it wasn’t like that at all. It was just a quiet, ‘something clicked’ kinda thing. Like I could suddenly line up the stories of my life.
Stuff like: I spent a lot of my time as a kid watching wildlife documentaries. I refused to eat sharks fin soup at family gatherings and weddings. I made my classmates throw their used paper into a cardboard box so I could bring it to the petrol station where the recycling bins were. I wanted to study zoology in uni (but didn’t because dad said I’d have no where else to work but the zoo). I chose teaching because I figured it wasn’t something that was very polluting.
So now I’m on my path to explore conservation. I’ve enrolled in a National Geographic course called “Introduction to Conservation” and will be blogging about my learning in the days to come, so do check back from time to time if you’d like to know what I’ve learnt.
Lee Xiu Ping 