How do people see how to live a good and meaningful life?

Second draft:
Through the ages people consider themselves to be living good and meaningful lives. Though the question arises what is a good and meaningful life? Often people’s perceptions on living a good and meaningful life are being influenced by the things in our culture. But there are also those that do not follow the social norm and define what is meaningful to them by the marginal and prohibited stuff in our culture. This paper will go into how others and myself define what’s meaningful to them and if in fact our interpretations are indeed effected by our culture’s message on how to live a good and meaningful life.

Andy Snyder said “Sometimes the way we determine the meaning of something is based on the function it serves in our lives”. I find this very true in my interpretation on what’s good and meaningful in my life. My family and friends play a big role in my life. I spend half my time with my friends and the other half with my family. The most meaningful people in my life are my friends and family. They are with me through out my life and will be there for me when I need help. As I grow older and my circle of friends may expand or shrink, I know that my family will always be there. And even when I’m away from my friends and family I can still chat with them over the phone or with instant messenger. My cats are also meaningful to me. They are a part of my family and have been with me since I was 5 years old.
The meaningful things in my life have to bring me happiness and have to have a good purpose. The meaningless things in my life are things that wont help me in the future and hurt me. Though most of the time our lives are filled with both the meaningful and non-meaningful things. And we accept the meaningless things cause with out having some meaningless stuff we couldn't appreciate all the meaningful things in life. To me material possessions are things that don’t make my life meaningful. Wealth is important and you see that in corporate messages yet those things are expendable. They are just face value. They don’t last like friends and family. I also believe that no one else can tell you what’s meaningful in your life. Only you can say what makes you happy.