I wrote this at the time of awaiting my PhD admit decisions while finishing my Neuroscience MS in Taipei - having recently interviewed for Northwestern & MSU. (Spoiler alert: I later got both of these admits and withdrew from other applications as MSU was my top priority.)

What do you want from life?
Perhaps just a serene place to share with your wife.

But also, to be able to discuss the purpose of your being,
& why care about the future and death seems terrifying?

To be able to think like Aristotle and Galileo,
& come up with answers that humanity is craving to know.

To seek knowledge and find out what’s out there,
& also work on problems that humanity shares.

To savor all the pleasures human sensations offer,
& contemplate about how things could’ve been different before you’re wrapped in a coffer.

To come up with proof of why neanderthals had bigger brains,
& where would we end up if evolution happened again?

To debate how much free will people happen to have,
& why do you tend to help someone, knowing well they are knave.

To think if even your cat has a sense of self,
& why she is interested only in a tomcat, but not an elf.

As your life’s merely a result of a series of chance encounters,
Now that you’re here, try making sense of your being, that might impress your creator!