A document on my computer was created on Sunday, March 19th, 1995. Since the text in the document is not an original creation by me, we have to assume that it was written before I created the file in which to record it. That means that these words may have been composed exactly 10 years ago this very night!

The Meaning of Life?!? Charlie Bagwell - Senior Godwin High Life (lif) n., pl. lives (livz), adj. - n. 1a living; being alive. People animals and plants have life; rocks, dirt, and metals do not. Life is shown by growing and reproducing. SYN: being, existence. b a state, existence, or principle of existence conceived as belonging to the soul, especially in the Biblical and religious use: the spiritual life, eternal life. 2 the time of being alive; existence of an individual: a day of one's life, food enough to sustain life, a short life. During his life he was an outstanding doctor. According to Webster, this is the meaning of life. However, through this article I am hoping to go beyond this dictionary definition; to take YOU, the reader further into this mystery that has plagued mankind for centuries. For your information: this will not be your normal InSync article in that I have devised a new and ingenious way to deal with the subject matter. The gist of it is, I will quote what answer various teenagers have given me, and then find faults with their answers. I decided to begin my search for the meaning of life at the pillar of wisdom of the Richmond metropolitan area, what other than the Governor's School. Let's see what sort of enlightenment these students possess. Rich Friedburg, Sophomore at GSGIS quotes "The meaning of life is to live." Hmm... Thought-provoking, intelligent, Mr. Friedburg is a sheer genius. Perhaps Rich has a future as a dictionary author. Another Sophmore at GSGIS, Micah Edwards, states "Life is like a kumquat, I'm just not sure how." Sounds like something that was rejected from the Forrest Gump script. Micah, if you ever find out how life is like kumquat, I hope to be the first to know. Continuing with the sagacity of Governor's School students is Freshman Adam Moore. "I think the meaning of life would have to be that we are not perfect but should always strive to improve our lives and the lives of others. If we do this then maybe one day someone will live in a society where they know what the meaning of life." What keen insight this young lad possesses! This one quote actually makes some sense! Maybe there is some hope for Governor's School people after all. Finally after deciding that the Governor's School is too large of a plethora of knowledge for me, maybe I should move onto some other schools. For instance, Tommy Wojciaczyk, Senior at Monacan High says, "Life is a round trip from nowhere and back, where you can meet other travellers..." sounds promising, until the end "...And idolize Tommy." Well Tommy, the meaning of my life is certainly to idolize you, and I spend all my spare time in that practice. Jason Grunert, a Senior at Midlothian High brings up an interesting point. "I don't think that life has a meaning." Finally, the moment you all have been waiting for, the time for me to speak. I personally believe that life is a very complicated process, the scientific values of which we will completely comprehend some day soon. However, the philosophic values of life will not be discovered for many, many years. But, I honestly believe that there is some purpose to life. I do not think there is anything more melancholy than to believe that we are here for no purpose, just taking up space. Also, Someone somewhere has some reason for us being here, and that someone is probably laughing at us every time we trip on our own feet also. Enough of this psycho-babble, back to what you guys have to say. Brent Wolfe, Senior at Monacan High tries to sum life up with "The meaning of life is to live the fullest one you can.. One cannot dwell on anything that may have hurt them.. They just have to learn from the experience and move on. Unfortunately, that is much easier said than done." This is a good point indeed, however, I fail to see where past experiences has anything to do with the purpose of life. As for living life to the fullest, what is qualified as fullest? (I won't define it, don't worry). Like many, many students, Ben Allison, Freshman at Clover Hill gave me 42 as the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. For those of you who are naive, and have not read Douglas Adams' trilogy of the Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy, it is a series highly reccommended. According to Douglas Adams, billions and billions of years ago, a supercomputer called Deep Thought was programmed to find the answer to the ultimate question of Life the Universe and Everything. Deep Thought ultimately arrived to the resolution of 42. However, the people were not happy with this, and decided that it was actually the question that they did not understand. Thus, Deep Thought created a supercomputer, which in a few million millennia, would discover the question to Life, the Universe, and Everything. This supercomputer was the Earth, and five minutes before the Earth was to calculate the question, it was destroyed by aliens building a hyperspace bypass. Although just a tad off the wall, Douglas Adams does give us another point to philosophize about... Do we actually understand the question? When faced with the question, "What is the meaning of life," what would your immediate response be? Naturally, everyone has a different and varied answers, and maybe some of them are right, and some of them are wrong, or maybe all of them are right, or maybe they are all wrong. Maybe the meaning of life is to run around nude, or maybe the media is right and the meaning of life is the O.J. Simpson trial. The best answer that I received was from an adult. (Disclaimer: you know the old saying, don't trust anyone over 30.) "I think that the meaning of life is learning to understand and appreciate yourself. I don't mean in a cocky, conceited sort of way. I think that to be happy in life, you have to figure out what you are and what you like, and do it. If others share your compassions, that's fine. If they don't, no big deal. The irony of this is that once you decide that you don't need someone else to help you find the meaning and happiness, the more people are attracted to the self-assured person that you are. So when you decide you CAN be alone, you no longer need to be." This really blew me away! It makes so much sense, and yet it's so simple! What a drag though, nothing to make fun of. To conclude, although I doubt there are any universal truths that can be taken to heart through this article, I hope I at least provided a few laughs and an amusement for something that everyone takes so seriously. But, if you feel enlightened, send your check or money order to Charlie Bagwell....

I guess I know what Rich and Micah are doing. C.B. is too common a name for a good fast googling, but Tom Wojciaczyk? Easy! He went to Virginia Tech and now does computer work in Richmond for CVA! Jason Grunert? He went on to Tech for school, but the internet is silent after that. Brent Wolfe may have gone to college in Maryland and gone to work in therapeutic recreation. Who would have guessed?

Anyway, do you like apples? Well then, how do you like THEM apples?