one big sea of lives

 
   At some point in our lives, we've crossed paths with another person, and changed their lives forever. We may not know it, and to be honest, they probably didn't realize it either, but it did happen. It happens with everyone. Truth be told, we are all connected. We are one big sea of lives, just jellyfish entertwining with one another, never actually knowing where we are going or who we are effecting. As said by William James, "We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep." In simplier terms, everyone's life has a purpose, and that purpose is to change someone else's life.  
  In The Five People You Meet in Heaven, the storyline really expresses the general idea that everyone matters and has a purpose for being placed on earth. That's what this story truly meant to me. It opened my eyes to the fact that everyone who has crossed my path was there for a reason. Everyone in my past, present, and future is placed here for a specific purpose. That purpose may be unknown now, but at some point it will all be explained and make since. An example of this was Eddie's job as a maintance man at Ruby Pier. In a conversation between Eddie and Tala at the end of the story it stated, " 'Fixing rides? That was my existence?' He blew a deep breathe. 'Why?' She tilted her head, as if it were obvious. 'Children,' she said. 'You keep them safe. You make good for me.' " As you can see, Eddie didn't know why he was ever created, placed on earth. But in the end his purpose all along had been to save children, and he never realized how much he was actually needed in the world.
  Sometimes in life, our purpose may not even be much. Sometimes, it could just be saving someone else from death itself. As shown by the "Blue Man'' in Eddie's first lesson when he reached heaven, " 'You say you should have died instead of me. But during my time on earth, people died instead of me, too. It happens everyday. When lightening strikes a minute after you are gone, or an airplane crashes that you might have been on. When your colleague falls ill and you do not. We think such things are random. But there is a balance to it all.' '' The Blue Man's reasoning for dying was to save Eddie and allow Eddie the chance to forfill his purpose.
  To sum it all up, "We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep." Your choices in life are all apart of a bigger picture. And that picture is your purpose. Your purpose to tell someone else their purpose, to save their life, to help them through hard times, to change them in unremarkable ways, anything and everything. You matter, to anyone and everyone. We are all connected in this one big web. Impacting and changing things as we go. Helping and saving along the way. You matter. You have a purpose to change someone else's life. We are connected. We are one big sea of lives.