By Mia Ginsberg

Have you ever thought about what it means to live?

We know the criteria to be alive,
Although hotly contested.
One needs heredity,
Growth,
Reproduction.
But what does it mean
To live?
To transform
Our time allotted
Solely intended
To perform nature’s tasks,
Into meaning,
Fulfillment?

Many say there is a hole
A crater,
In your soul,
That needs to be filled.
Others say to complete your tasks,
What else to do but what we’re meant to?
Still others say
Life
Is only precious
Because it ends.

We live with that knowledge,
That our impact is futile.
Yet we live in spite of it.
We believe our actions
Create consequences.
To be alive is to have a life force to use,
To have a world to walk in.
To live
Is to take that life force
And run with it.

When she wrote this piece, Mia Ginsberg was in the 10th grade at Yarmouth High in Yarmouth, Maine. Mia is an avid reader who enjoys doing Taekwondo, annoying her brother, and playing guitar. She also loves to write stories and poems of any kind!


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