Before I get into what I really want to write about, let me tell you a story. If I were to show you my Ziploc bag, you would say it’s a simple bag. But to me, my Ziploc bag, referred by me as “Zip”, is an important companion of mine. Throughout my high school years, I would put whatever writing material needed inside Zip during exam period because the students weren’t allowed to carry pencil cases into the exam rooms. After every wave of exams, I would use Zip for for the next. My mom offered me a new bag, but I refused. After every exam I wrote, I felt I became closer to Zip, as stupid as that may sound. I felt that I was developing a stronger connection with Zip because it always stayed by my side during exam period. The more exams I wrote with Zip, the more I started to view it as a brother that fought alongside me through my hardships. It is more than a Ziploc bag to me, because I gave it meaning, and that is the topic I want to focus on in this entry.
Today it was announced officially that MSN Messenger will no longer exist after March 15th 2013.
Actually, I’ve heard about the possibility that MSN Messenger would shut down before, so the news did not really appear as a shock. However, the official status of the announcement certainly made me enter a sad mood. I don’t use MSN Messenger much these days, so I shouldn’t have felt sad about it shutting down, logically speaking. But I did. MSN Messenger wasn’t special to me because it was a chatting program. Instead, it held a part of my life.
MSN Messenger played a big influence throughout my adolescent and teenager years. When I was 10 years old, my friends for the most part all had an account. I was encouraged to make an account myself and I entered the world of online chatting. I don’t remember the first person I chatted with, but I remember what I felt. I felt, as I sent my first instant message, a feeling of excitement. I would spend nights chatting with friends and never getting bored. We would discuss anything we wanted to: school, sports, games, jokes, etc. Every conversation was a new opportunity to learn something new and develop a deeper connection with the one I was talking with. Whenever I met someone in real life, they’d ask me for my MSN email and we’d exchange the information like greetings. The social messenger really was a way for me to open up to new people and provided many sources of entertainment. I felt welcomed by a community and I gladly created many important memories with it.
And opposed to complex social networking sites today such as Facebook, MSN Messenger actually helped me develop deeper friendships. Facebook was all about posting statuses and mindlessly liking other peoples’ activities. I never found myself using the chat function much. All you could do on MSN Messenger on the other hand, was chat. And it was fun. It felt like I was part of a community whenever I logged on, seeing a list of friends that I would talk to daily. I would ecstatically start a conversation because I felt like I had a chance to expand my connections with others. When I go on Facebook, I rarely see a chance to create relationships. I am bombarded with news updates of other people and how happy they all seem in life. Instead of feeling as if I was part of a community, I felt I was staring at a mirror that reflected something I didn’t/couldn’t have.
But I’m not here to bash Facebook (even if I sort of did). My point is this: we don’t yearn for material; we yearn for memories. Nothing in this world means anything unless we give it meaning. MSN Messenger wasn’t really that much more special than other chatting programs during its time like Yahoo Messenger. But it is because I constantly used MSN Messenger that I was able to develop a strong bond with it. I did and accomplished so much with the messenger that it embodies many good memories of my childhood. I gave it meaning when I was a child, and therefore I am sad to see that it will finally leave my life. I don’t really miss the program, but more so the experience it allowed me to live through. Thank you MSN Messenger, you will be missed.
And as a message to you readers: try and enjoy your current situation, no matter how hard it may be, because you may never experience it ever again once you move on from it. A previous post of mine talked about how I miss my high school. The establishment wasn’t all that special, but it was the memories I have within the building that makes me visit it from time to time. (The post is here if you want to read more about it: http://getranting.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/the-place-where-i-belong/)
People never truly realize the good of their situations until they are about to move on in their lives. But I want you to look at whatever you are facing tomorrow and try to stay positive. After all, the meaning of life is to live a life with meaning. If there really isn’t anything positive to look forward to, then persevere through so you can move into the next stage of your life which will hopefully be a little brighter.
Thanks for reading.
My husband and I met online while he was in Iraq. The first 6 months were spent on Yahoo Messenger…I had to place myself in your shoes…imagine how sad we would be to say farewell to that smiley face. A great read
that is a great story! good for you two!
Thank you so much for this blog. Meaning is so important to a satisfying life. Where is meaning and how to create it? Is it that meaning doesn’t come from our thoughts even if our thoughts are very important in creating meaning?
I have found in my life that meaning comes from doing, acting, and even experiencing something and then learning the lesson if there was a lesson to be learned. Is it that we all build meaning from our experiences and how we respond to them, not by our thinking but by our doing? Thinking (positive or negative thoughts) is the starting point, but the delivery of meaning comes from doing things that we can be proud of whether others are aware of these things or not.
Is it that people who have a lot of meaning in their lives have few regrets and people who have a lot of regrets don’t have much meaning in their lives?
Thanks for the input! Experiencing the event upfront is definitely a key factor in learning. I completely agree that thinking is the starting point. Strangely enough, your post made me think of two types of people: those who influence action with words, and those who influence action with their actions. Both types of people are influential, just like thinking and doing.
I don’t believe I have a true answer to your question at the end, however, I don’t think it is necessarily true that meaning automatically leads to few regrets. Perhaps having too much meaning might lead to more regrets because we feel we never cherished what we faced in life enough and only realized the benefits later on. Or, meaning does not necessarily have to be positive. Meaning can still in failures that we wish not to face. Debate’s up for grabs