Running head: PURPOSE REFLECTION PAPER 1

Purpose Reflection Paper

Elyse Acompanado
Loras College
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In the beginning of my senior year I was unsure of what my future held for me. I was

especially concerned about figuring out what career I wanted to go into. While having both a

criminal justice and psychology major has been great, I found it hard to pick or even merge the

two majors together in a future career. I know that my career image involves concern for others

as I feel a call towards service. I want my career to help people in whatever walk of life they are

at. However, identifying who has been the biggest hurdle along with how I want to help. I could

continue my education in psychology for counseling or I could become integrated with the

criminal justice system with restorative justice programs. To bottom line is I would like to go

back to Wisconsin in either Madison or Milwaukee to work or go to grad school.

To achieve this goal, I have been reflecting more on what I want to do. As I have been

gaining more experience through my internship at the Dubuque YMCA/YWCA Victims Service

Shelter I have become more incline to follow a career that helps victims of domestic violence. I

would love to continue pursuing an education in psychology to become a counselor to help these

victims.

Then I was reminded that purpose is not just limited to my career but instead it is a

vocation throughout life. Recently I was struck by a quote my friend Matisen had posted on

social media. It talked about how it can be tempting to live life as if we’re setting up our story

and not actively living. Instead we should be taking advantage of our life and existence to live

our lives fearlessly to we shape where we are going. From this quote I was reminded that

ultimately in life I want to have satisfaction in what I’m doing. I am not focusing on achieving
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happiness but instead being happy about my life. I should not wait for the perfect conditions to

start being satisfied with my life, I should always work on being satisfied.

First I need to pursue meaning to why I am here to better understand my purpose. In

order to have satisfaction, I need to find importance in what I am doing. At the moment I am

working in campus dinning at Loras College. It is not the most glamorous job to have so I make

sure my mind set is focused on enjoying my time. Every little thing I do has could be spent in

celebration rather than just going through the motions. While I plan on going becoming a

domestic violence counselor I know my career plan can change. My mindset can also be set to

relate to my career image as I feel called to serve. Through whatever job I have I want to feel

like I am serving the community.

I can live a satisfied life by finding three hobbies I love; one to make money, one to keep

me in shape, and one to be creative. I need to find other hobbies to keep me physically and

mentally active besides my career to keep me satisfied. Throughout life I have enjoyed being a

part of different sports teams and working out at the gym. In my future I would like to continue

this routine of staying active to move my body naturally like in the Power of 9. An activity to

keep me creative would be continuing to play guitar and sing. Music has been a great tool to

challenge myself while also enjoy the process to master different pieces. By continuing my

hobby of playing guitar and singing I will be able to build up my cognitive reserve. That way

later in life I can be satisfied in knowing that I have prepared my brain for either Alzheimer’s or

dementia.

Second I need to put forth great effort into my life. The source of satisfaction requires

effort over time. Related to the quote earlier, every day I am alive I should be finding ways to be

living my life and not just waiting to live. I need to persevere through the ups and downs that life
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throws my way in order to find satisfaction. This life I have will not be perfect and taking the

message I learned from Sarah Swafford this semester, I will work through my challenges as we

are all striving because perfect does not exists.

Finally, I need to be responsible for my role in the bigger picture. Being a competent

parent, a caring spouse, a loving child, a productive worker, and a good friend are wonderful

sources of life satisfaction. Through relationship we have the opportunity to create happiness

with others to achieve life satisfaction. I wish to be all those people listed above and to do that I

need to work on building my relationships with others. This way there is a sense of belonging for

everyone I interact with.

I will not wake up one day and have a "eureka" moment and suddenly know what my

purpose in life is. No, I have to discover my purpose through experience. These comes from

engaging with difference and building relationships with others in the world. The different ways

and understandings of life will open my eyes to my own purpose. Through that I must get rid of

expectations and the weights that hold me down from finding my purpose and being satisfied

with life. Everything that I do is a result of my purpose in life. There are a lot of other things that

I feel are part of my purpose in life, like: making others happy, making the world a better place,

spending as much time as possible with the people I love, and challenging myself intellectually

and physically. But I only truly care about these things because they will eventually result in my

main purpose, and that is to live a long and satisfying life. Living in the moment and understand

that I am on a journey of becoming.