How do you feel significant?

[trocious]

The best times in my life are when I can have an entire thought process that leads me to a conclusion about something positive. That statement is simple, but it's much more complex. It's an interweaving of sentiment to create a worthiness that could be applied to almost any human being you knew.

I miss those times, where things seemed so significant, although I could realize how insignificant they truly were. That made them all the more savory and elusive. Just the taste of such thoughts make me smile and yearn for more. It's those times where things click, and you realize your value and potential as a person, as someone who can make a difference should you choose to.

I just want to be happy, but I want that happiness to come from within. Once again that is simple and not the whole truth. This happiness needs to come from within, but that doesn't mean it can't be derived externally. For example, something that makes me happy is making someone else happy. When I know that I've made someone else's day, it makes my day that much better.

There's something about the affection of a stranger that makes me tingle. The implication is that, although that person has no idea who you are, simply by the way you present yourself and your interactions with the person made enough of an impression to warrant praise or gratitude. That can't be beat, it makes me feel like a good person; it washes away this dirty feeling I can't shake and these drugs I can't stop taking. It gives me hope for humans, knowing that if someone as seemingly wretched as me can make a positive influence on a complete stranger.

I have hope for all of those struggling out there, even you.. I know where I've been, and I've always come back to the light (even if I get dunked into the dark on occasion).

So, sincerely, I hope you all realize that you are worth something, or at the very least have the potential to do something positive.

Love,
--------- Ian ------

 

[burntserkits]

^ditto...

 

[Jekyll and Hyde]

I felt significant when I was working for a biotech company that worked on orphan diseases (diseases that there wasn't much funding for because there weren't enough funding because not enough people had these diseases, thus there wasn't much in profit on finding cures). I went to the Drug Discovery and Technology convention in Boston a few years back and I had people come up to me telling me how much a drug from my company helped give a family member the opportunity to play with their children and live normal lives. That made me feel really good that a drug that I helped do research on helped let family members play with their own children. Now that I'm laid off I miss being appreciated like that. I feel the most significant when I'm working in the lab, because that's what I do best, and I can't wait to get a job again (hopefully working on orphan diseases) in either the biotech field or in an academic lab. Being laid off gives me too much time to ruminate on my depression, thus its self perpetuating. I loved having the feeling of playing a part in helping save lives somewhere along the line.

 

[edgewise1]

I am a little older than most of you so what makes me feel significant may not make a lot of sense or even matter in your eye's.

I teach middle school and have for 26 years. In that time I have had a few students come back, call, even write to me to tell me how I made a difference in their lives. Like I say, only had a few to do this and I have taught 1000's of kids in that 26 years. But even at that, this makes all the hassle I have to put up with worth it!

 

[Draigan]

My question to you is what hell would ever make you feel insignificant?Seriously, what are you talking about?

Name one thing that makes you feel insignificant. I am totally curious. Even dying doesnt make me feel insignificant. Everything effects everything. So if you werent the way you are now, the whole universe wouldnt be the way it is now. So how the hell can you feel insignificant?

 

[unsettled]

I teach music part time and it definitely makes me feel significant, I'm fortunate that I like most of my students, it's very rewarding when they come to you with no idea of how to play an instrument or how to make sense of all the technical and theoretical aspects of music and you help them learn. I can always tell when a student's mind clicks and starts to understand what I'm saying, sometimes I have to try a few different ways to get a student to understand a concept but it's very rewarding, on bad days it's the best part of my day.

I feel significant in other ways too, that's just the first example that came to mind. Just getting a smile from a stranger can make you feel significant, especially if she's pretty ......

I can feel insignificant too, I'm very versatile...j/k.