Carter Gates -- Does Pain have a Purpose?

 December 8, 2022 

    Does pain have a purpose? I feel like I have asked myself this question on multiple occasions. In one of our classes, Dr. Ritchie came in and led a discussion, and one of the main topics we discussed was pain, the sources it comes from, the role it plays in our life, and the different ways in which we can interpret and deal with it. From the talk and what I gathered from what others said was that pain is not related to the concept of purpose itself. However, that does not mean we cannot use our pain for a purpose. When we are experiencing pain, we often misplace where we direct that pain because we allow it to take over our lives and control us in a way. And we let that pain change into anger and we use that anger to fuel us, sometimes in good ways and sometimes in bad ways. However, I think that we should try to use that pain to motivate ourselves in some way, whether it is to work harder, have more fun, take more risks, study more, etc. Pain is going to happen to us because it is inevitable and unavoidable, but we can either choose to let it take us over and fill us with rage, or we can choose to give that pain a purpose and use it to better ourselves in some way.