I’m floundering. I’m a fifth-year college senior and when people ask me the inevitable question “what do you want to do?”, I don’t have any sort of answer. I’m still just figuring things out. Maybe that isn’t so bad for someone who is only 22 years old, but on the flip side of the coin I could have easily graduated college with a Masters degree by now.

There are over six billion people on the Earth, far more than there has ever been before. And due to advancements in communication technology, most notably the Internet, it makes each person increasingly less significant. Who cares if you fall off the face of the Earth? So what if you get lost in the fray? To some extent I have a pretty strong need for achievement. Growing up in school I tied a large amount of my identity to being the smart kid; in retrospect, I would probably spend more effort on interpersonal relationships and less on the computer or doing homework, but that’s the past.

Let’s say you die tomorrow. How will you be remembered? Even better, what if you die in 10 years from now? What will you have accomplished in the next ten years to make yourself remembered and cherished past your time shared with the rest of us?

For many of us this is family. My own father passed away when I was just a child, and not a day goes by that I don’t think of him. He led a very distinguished military career, working at the Pentagon and serving as a Green Beret in Vietnam among other assignments. To me he’s important, but to you….he’s just another nameless story that you’ll gloss over.

I’m not saying that you or I need to become famous authors, celebrities, or business leaders to be relevant in the world…but it certainly doesn’t hurt. In this large world, thousands of times the scale humans lived in only a few centuries ago, how does one live on and create a legacy worthy of being remembered and cherished?

I’m thinking that perhaps the answer is to create value. This could mean many things: money, relationships, books, organizations, etc.

I don’t have the answer…I’m searching for it myself. But in this world of Six Billion and One, how will you lead your life in a way to stand out above the crowd and satisfy your inner desires?