note: The spoiler below is meant to block out a topic that may be harmful for people. Although I think it's mostly helpful, I just want to warn you that it may be a sensitive topic.
I don't remember what or who exactly sparked my interest in philosophy, but when I was about 16 years old, I ordered a bunch of philosophical texts from Amazon. I remember each book clearly. The list included:
- The Stranger by Albert Camus
- The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus
- The Dialogues of Socrates by Plato
- Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre
- The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius
- The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
I read every single one of these books as a 16 year old. The Stranger was perhaps the easiest book I've ever read in my life, but it had a deep impact for awhile. The Myth of Sisyphus also opened my mind up to a whole new idea. In this book, Camus made a claim: in life, the only philosophical question is that of suicide (or something like that). He argued that, if we're going to commit suicide, we could literally do ANYTHING ELSE before those final moments. Powerful. I realized I could just go travel the world... or really do anything, if my ultimate decision in life was departure.
Boethius sparked my interest in ancient philosophy. Boethius, accused of conspiracy, was sentenced to death. He wrote The Consolation of Philosophy while jailed, awaiting punishment. The book read almost as if someone wrote it yesterday. I realized that people from thousands of years ago had the same thoughts and concerns as we do today. Not much has changed in the human psyche. As you can imagine, the same happened when I read Plato for the first time.
And yet again when I read Marcus Aurelius, who holds a special place in my heart. I had no idea that Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Seneca would later spark inspiration in the world. This philosophy -- Stoicism -- would grow to become extremely popular, and for good reasons.
Philosophical works didn't give me answers. Rather, they gave me posture; a way to remain calm when pressure starts to bend everything inward, and a willingness to question my own assumptions before blaming the world.
When faced with obstacles, when confidence seems to evaporate, when the mind starts asking questions it doesn't have the strength to answer, those words are still there -- reminding me that the only thing I truly own is how I respond to what has been allotted to me.
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