My idea of a well-lived life and Laura Spelman's idea of a well-lived life are two very different concepts. Mine involves loving what I do, or at least trying to. Hers involves the real connections with people. So, the purpose of the essay is to ascertain where these two ideas meet. The answer lies in idea that loving what you do makes your relationships infinitely better. If you love what you do, you have the energy to maintain and nurture your relationships.

My version of a well-lived life is all about loving what I do. Loving what you do matters, if you have any hope of confronting your own fears and the fears of others; if you have any hope of facing change and accepting it; if you have any hope of sharing openly and candidly your goals and the obstacles that may keep you from achieving them. Loving what you do also means caring deeply about the place where you live and always striving to make it a better place for everyone. It means connecting people to one another and to their institutions so that all voices can be heard, all of our differences recognized and respected. It means providing a compass that is built on humanity and morality. Loving what you do also means

With these real connections, I can begin to love what I do. These real connections inspire me enjoy life and have fun. If I do not have anyone to love life with me, how can I love it myself? The relationship between my father and me inspires me the most to love to what I do. Every time I moan about how much school sucks, he says without failure, "You could always be flipping burgers at McDonald's your whole life," which always puts things right back into prospective. Also, whenever he is helping with my calculus, I feel inspired to understand it as well as he does. This will never happen, but a little extra motivation can't hurt. Troy always encourages me to have fun with his off-key personality. When I am down, he will say something stupid that will make me laugh and put things right back into prospective. David also inspires me to do what I love in many ways. We have some classes together, and manage to have some fun in them. He also motivates me to do better than he does at everything.

To have a well-lived life, you must love what you do, and in doing so your relationships will invariably improve. By loving what you do, it opens doors to connections with other people who see that you love what you do and will want do the same. If one can create a fair number of symbiotic relationships with others, he will love what he does even more. Take the example of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock. They both loved what they did. (Who wouldn't?) But the fact that they had a true connection with one another made it substantially more fun both of them. (Although Mr. Spock wasn't always keen on showing it).

that you have to deal with the cynicism and apathy, the greed and hypocrisy, the division and meanness that is so prevalent in our society today,

I learned from Laura in that I now realize it's not enti

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Approximate Word count = 1226
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)