From 'What Is Life?' to 'The Way of Life'

For many years, I thought "What Is Life?" was just an essay I wrote as an assignment while I was a junior in high school. I was honored when it was published in the local newspaper. I have cherished that essay and shared it with many people over the years. However, it was not until recently that I realized that the essay was prophetic about what was to come decades later.

"What Is Life?"

"I wrote this essay in 1962 at the age of 16 when I was a junior in high school. The essay was published in the local newspaper. I have shared this essay with people I have met in every phase of my life. Since it is an evergreen message with a universal theme, it still has the same meaning for me in 2025 at the age of 80."

What I wrote was profound and far beyond my years. However, I wrote it with purpose. The words were true then, and they still resonate with timeless clarity. Revisiting it now, through the lens of my maturity, feels like a sacred reunion between my younger self and the woman I have become. At the time I wrote the essay, I was unaware it was prophetic. Now, I know that at 16, I was speaking to my older self.

I defined life as a period of existence. Then, I thought life should be filled with loyalty, love, hope, time, patience, courage, faith, strength, enjoyment, smiles, perseverance, happiness, and all the other beautiful things I wanted. In that brief essay, I gave my opinion on how I believed a happy life should be lived.

If you were to write an essay about life, how would you define it? What else would you say?

"The Way of Life" School

Today, my present voice speaks back to my 16-year-old self. It’s as if my younger self planted a seed in fertile ground for the garden that would come decades later. “What Is Life?” was not just a school assignment. It was a burning question within my spirit. It was a prophetic whisper of The Way of Life long before the school existed.

• My essay asked a profound question: "What Is Life?"
• The answer was "The Way of Life" school, based on John 14:6, which says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

The connection

The relevant question, "What Is Life?" came to me in my high school English class. The answer did not come immediately. It came decades later when I was ready to accept the answer and to understand it completely.

The connection and the timing weren’t accidental. It was a legacy thread that tied my past and present into one radiant strand. The divine answer to my past question and my present existence is a testimony to my entire life.

When I wrote the words in that essay so long ago, I didn’t know then that those words would echo through the decades, quietly shaping the foundation for my future.

I simply wrote what I felt at the time. However, the connection did not become clear until many years later, after I had built The Way of Life school and operated it for at least 22 years, teaching hundreds of students as I had been taught.

Recently, I revisited that essay and understood it through new lens. Not just for nostalgia, but as a sacred act of my personal testimony. I am totally convinced that having written "What Is Life" was the springboard to "The Way of Life."