Todd May has a great way of describing your life and seeing if it has meaning. The way he used is called narrative values. His concept is, in my opinion, more flexible and relatable than Susan Wolf’s concept of a meaningful life. With May, you have to actively engaged on whatever you are working on and you don’t necessary have to be successful in your “project” in order to be successful. In Wolf’s concept, you have to be successful in your “project” in order to have a meaningful life. She had very strict rules to what a meaningful life is and you have to relate to all of the rules to be successful.
In my life, I feel like I have shown numerous narrative values. I have always been a quiet person and I’ve never been the one to be spontaneous or bold; I like to plan things. Spontaneity and intensity are some that I fall off on. I was also known as the girl who did her work and was very smart. I have always wanted to be a doctor since a very young age. This is the narrative value of intellectual curiosity because I was reaching the horizons with what I wanted my profession to be. I never was a bad child and I always did what I had to do while there were other kids being disobedient when the teacher or adult was gone. I feel like this is personal integrity because I could have acted crazy and did whatever I want, but I knew that that would be like following the leader and peer pressure and I wasn’t going to fall to that. I am friendly and I like to help people whenever I can. I can’t go on with my day if I see someone I care about in distress or hurt; it is just not in my nature. I also I have never been that creative; I feel like I am more of a left-brain person. I rather stick to concrete rules and expectations. Thinking and creating stuff on my own is not something I prefer. I am a determined person and I will work hard for whatever I need or have to do. I am very subtle as well. I do not like to be in the limelight; I’d rather be in the background. I am always the person who looks and observes, not being the person with all the attention. These are all of the things that describes me and my life is not over, so I might have some more narrative values come my way.