A DATE WITH DESTINY

By
Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago
(Excerpt from the Commencement speech before the U.P. College of Medicine graduates
on 20 May 2012 at the U.P. Theater in Diliman campus.)

The Purpose of Life is to Grow.

What is the meaning of life? This meaning is not for you to find, but for you to define. The meaning
of life is found in the purposes that we pursue as we grow older. Each one must interpret
individually the meaning of life. You must read meaning into the situations you find yourselves
in, case by case.

From my book, Philosophy of Religion, let me read for you:

Even if life is meaningless, we have to go on living, as a form of rebellion against cosmic

meaninglessness. Your slogan should be: "Dare to become what you are." If there is no God, and
no other world than this one, then we are the creators of our own values. The supreme value is life-
assertion. And the next highest value is the will to power over evil. We must confront the most
difficult truth about ourselves. In a godless world, we have no alternative but to choose - and in
that sense to create - our own values. In other words, we create the meaning of our life.

Perhaps life has no meaning, but perhaps those who are religious can find meaning in the four
categories of human experience: suffering, hope, effort, and grace. The various religions are
responses to the realization of the agony of life. Religion seeks to transform the underlying agony
and anxiety of life into the joy and gratitude we can feel for the gift of love.