It was just another lazy Sunday.
Lunch was over. The house was unusually quiet. I lay down on my bed, not because I wanted to sleep, but because I wanted to escape the constant rush of life for a few moments.
As I stared at the ceiling, a strange thought crossed my mind:
“What if all of this is meaningless?”
We wake up, rush to work, earn money, pay bills, chase dreams, celebrate birthdays, lose people we love, grow old, and one day… we’re gone.
Then what was the point?
I don’t know how long I remained lost in those thoughts until my eyes wandered towards my open bookshelf.
Some of my favourite companions were quietly waiting there—Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, The Courage to Be Disliked, The Myth of Sisyphus, Man’s Search for Meaning, The Stranger, Atomic Habits, The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, and Ikigai.
Almost instinctively, I picked up The Myth of Sisyphus. It had been months since I last opened it.
As I turned a few pages, three words caught my attention:
Nihilism. Existentialism. Absurdism.
Three philosophies. Three different responses to the same question that had just appeared in my mind.
1. Nihilism — “Nothing Really Matters”
Nihilism says that life has no inherent meaning or purpose.
Everything we build, achieve, or love will eventually disappear. The universe doesn’t care.
Imagine spending years building a magnificent sandcastle, only for a single wave to wash it away.
A nihilist would say,
“It was meaningless from the beginning.”
It’s a philosophy that many people unknowingly experience during heartbreak, failure, or moments of deep loneliness.
2. Existentialism — “Create Your Own Meaning”
Existentialists agree that life doesn’t come with a ready-made purpose.
But instead of giving up, they say:
“Then create one.”
Meaning isn’t something you find.
It’s something you build.
A teacher finds meaning in shaping young minds.
A doctor finds meaning in saving lives.
A parent finds meaning in raising a child.
The universe may not assign us a purpose, but we are free to choose one.
3. Absurdism — “Accept the Chaos and Keep Living”
This philosophy resonated with me the most.
Albert Camus argued that humans naturally search for meaning, but the universe remains silent.
That conflict—the desire for answers in a world that offers none—is what he called the Absurd.
His famous example is Sisyphus, a man condemned to push a huge rock up a mountain forever, only to watch it roll back down every single time.
Camus ends with a surprising thought:
“One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
Not because the task has meaning, but because he chooses to embrace the struggle anyway.
My Reflection
Maybe life doesn’t owe us an explanation.
Maybe we’ll never know why we’re here.
But perhaps that’s okay.
Maybe the purpose isn’t to solve the mystery.
Maybe it’s to enjoy conversations with friends, read books that change us, teach students who inspire us, love our families, laugh a little louder, cry when we need to, and keep moving forward despite not having all the answers.
That Sunday afternoon began with a question.
It ended with a realization.
Sometimes the most meaningful thing about life is that we get to decide how we’ll live it—even when the universe stays silent.
What about you?
If someone asked you today, “What gives your life meaning?” what would your answer be?