As most of my friends know, my middle name is Joy. Emily Joy. My middle name was supposed to be Rachel but my mother changed it upon my birth. Her reasoning was that my birth gave her immediate joy and 19 years later, I am extremely grateful for that change. I believe that there was a underlying reason for why she changed my middle name at the last second. Every day I live by my middle name and go throughout my day knowing my purpose in life.
Growing up I never really thought about my middle name in any sense other than always hearing, “aww that is so cute!” or, “I love that!” I never thought that there was an actual purpose behind it, at least not in my mind. Growing up I also never really thought about my purpose in life until I came across this quote freshman year of college while scrolling through Tumblr:
“The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” --Robert Byrne
I initially thought that this quote was inspiring but nothing past that. The quote hadn’t truly inspired me until this year when I came across it again. This year I have found that instead of thinking my middle name is cute people tend to say, “that makes sense since you are such a joy.” As weird as it is to admit this and I do not mean to sound conceited but, I am a joy to be around. During a late-night chat with a friend, I realized that I have found my purpose in life. My purpose in life is to bring joy to others.
I thrive on making others smile and happy. I thrive on letting people know how much they mean to me. I thrive on randomly highlighting the good in others. I thrive on making others feel good about themselves and important. I thrive on showing people that I am excited to see them. I thrive on making others happy as it makes me wicked happy knowing I am the reason for someone’s happiness.
