To Be Good, Or Not To Be Good, That Is The Question.

      The "good" in the world should not be rewarded. I do not agree that a good action justifies a good ending. Sometimes, doing the right and morally correct thing does not constitute a reward and does not always work out in the do-gooders favor. If good people were constantly being rewarded i do not believe they would remain good for very long. It is human nature to adapt and develop a routine with rewards and such. After a period of time, people would rely on the reward and no longer do good things for the sole purpose of being good. It would be a vicious cycle which demoralizes the act of being righteous or morally correct. The idea of morality is also an important factor in handing out rewards for doing good. Hitler believed that he was doing good by exterminating 6 million Jews, does he earn a reward? It comes down to the basic definition of the word good. I do not believe that there is a universal definition for this broad generalizing word. For example, (in bad grammar) chocolate may be "good" for some people, but for others, vanilla is "good". Which act constitutes a reward, eating chocolate or vanilla? Because the word good is so hard to define, it makes it quite impossible to reward human beings for being good or doing the correct thing.
     It is quite easy for me to say that the evil should be punished. They do a bad thing, and we as humans, want justice. We don't like to see the bad guy get away with bad deeds. We hope desperately that karma will come around and knock them off of their pedestal. Unfortunately the hard truth is that often, bad goes unpunished. Should someone be punished for killing a person? The answer is yes. For every situation where a person is killed, the answer is no.  Regardless of whether evil is punished or not, it is our job in society to not lose sight of the good within each of us. One by one we can extinguish the evil within ourselves and strengthen the good. If each person focuses on solving their own issues, I truly believe that slowly the world would become a better place. Our society thrives on bonuses and rewards but there is also a side of humanity that does good things not for the rewards or prizes, but for the bettering of society, and the world around us. 
     It may seem unfair when the bad people in this world  never lose. It's hard to stay "good" when their seems to be so many initial benefits of doing the wrong thing. But I have faith in our humanity, and  I know how strong the human soul truly is.  To be honest, I haven't quite figured out why people stay good when so many of the evil people thrive in today's society. All I know is people do it. Maybe its because people believe in a higher power, or maybe its because of the soul of steel that lies within each human. Either way, people choose the right path because they know it is the right thing to do.
     God punishes Job to prove that Job is strong enough to handle anything that God throws at him. God wants to show the devil that Job will pray to God in times of terrible misfortune and not only during good times. Job was an avid follower of God during his life. Job also had everything he could have ever wanted. He had a wife, children, his health and crops galore. God wanted to prove to the devil that Job would pray to him even when all this was taken away. Regardless of what Job had, he would still believe in God and trust that everything was happening for a reason; even if it wasn't an apparent one

We know that life has value based on the contributions that we have made to world around us. I think that it starts at home and in our surroundings, but also can extend to encompass the world. Although personal accomplishments are an important part of succeeding in life, I do not think that they neccesarily give life meaning.  It is a hard concept to unravel; thinking about whether my own life has meaning and it is an even scarier thought to wonder if my life will have meaning as I travel through life.  However, I think that one of the most improtant factors in making sure I have a meaningful life is taking the time to appreciate what I have right now. Most times, we become so involved in acheiving, and reaching the next level that we forget to look around once in awhile and appreciate the things and people we have in our lives now. To make life worthwhile, it is impirtant to remeber and act on the most basic human feelings such as happiness, humility and accpetance. Someone who is not happy but has a highpaying job and a great house does not constitute a meaningful life. However, one who is happy with less and shares with others can be seen to have a meaningful life. I think that the choice to go down the path towards acheiving meaning is not neccesarily a concious decision.  Many times, we continue down a path because it feels right to us, depending on our moral compass at the time. Sometimes that can lead to a negative path and other times it can lead to a more positive one.  However, there are always pathways between the two roads where any human being and cross between. A person who acheives meaning in the end is not always the person who stayed on the right path for their entire life. In fact, that is rarely possible at all.
      5 things that i want to posses or experience by the end of my life are as follows:
1. Travel to a foreign country to help for longer than a week
2. work for a humanitarian organization/ something in international relations
3. Have a family, husband
4. Make sure kids have solid moral values
5.possess closure that I lived my life to the fullest extent

     After going to Nicargua my sophomore year, I want to go on more service missions for longer periods of time so that I can feel that i made a significant change somewhere in the world. Because I was able to see people who were much less fortunate than I was, I understand how important it is to leave my comfort zone and see other parts of the world. I would like to continue this as I travel through life. It is one way that I believe that I will make my life worthwhile. All 5 of my ultimate goals reflect a portion of humanity, and in a sense, keeping humanity alive and strong. I hope to have a family and to be able to teach them the moral values that I believe, and be able to give them skills that they need to make their own choices. This reflects the concept of humanity because if humans do not have moral values in the future than humanity cannot exist.