Live Life like a Mouse

As people, we all experience this pressure to figure out what we want to do in life, what we like, or what path we want to choose. This pressure can be so overwhelming, and many times causes us to have mental breakdowns, or crash-outs. Don’t lie - we have all been there before. I was feeling this pressure recently when my friend had her own breakdown, wondering what the purpose of life was. It’s easy for any of us to wonder about the same thing, especially when dealing with these pressures that society deals us. It may seem very pointless to go through these stressful, societal demands, if the end is the same for all of us. Furthermore, if you believe that you only have one life to live, it seems like we should be living it by our own rules and with happiness rather than following the burdensome path that everyone seems to go back to eventually. So, I was wracking my brain trying to find an answer to my friend’s dilemma, knowing that no one can truly answer the question, “What is the purpose of life?”. However, one morning, I came up with my own idea of life’s purpose.

Zook, Madison. "Moonlit Sky With Pink Clouds." Photo. Pinterest 2025

Maybe the purpose of life is that we don’t have one. I propose the theory that we are all just here to coexist. We are just another part of nature, but I don't mean this in a saddening way whatsoever. Some people try to answer the question of purpose with religion, but this answer is not satisfactory for many of us. Some people believe religion was created so that we can pretend or feel like we have a purpose, so we don’t all feel like there’s no point in living. Other people are religious, yet they still don’t find that religion is answer enough as to why we are still living life with such stress and to what end. In discovering my own theory that we are here just to coexist, I felt relief. Relief to think of myself as just part of nature, part of the ecosystem.

Humans have evolved more than any other species, so we think about bigger concepts than that which we were originally made to think about. We ponder the purpose of life, when in reality, we may have no more purpose than a mouse does - please don’t be offended, some mice are cute. We have created all of these concepts and paths to help us find what each of us is supposed to do, as if there is something that each individual should be working towards. Though, just because we have evolved does not necessarily mean that our purpose has evolved as well. As humans, as animals, as living things on Earth, we could just be here to coexist. We are part of nature. We are part of the life cycle. We are here to coexist with all the other parts of nature, to serve nature, and eventually die. But rather than be saddened by this, that is, if you choose to jump on my spiraling train of thoughts, you can be relieved. We no longer need to walk around feeling the stress or failure of choosing the right career, finding our purpose, or figuring out the point of life. To put it simply, albeit a bit harshly, we are not important enough for that. We try to believe we serve a bigger purpose and that life can’t just be about living and dying. Although, when you really think about this theory of mine, it can be humbling to realize that it actually is just life and death. We are only here to coexist.

I am not here asking you to cast aside whatever beliefs you might hold and replace them with my uneducated idea. I simply hope that this can be comforting to some people as it is to me. I find that this idea of coexisting can be a good reminder when I am dealing with pressure or stress. I remind myself that, however I choose to live my life, there are no expectations I am supposed to live up to, other than those I decide to create for myself. I look at the nature existing around me and try not to let myself be consumed by worry or fear. Instead, I try to live my life as humbly and carefree as a mouse - a cute mouse.