Life isn't about keeping score.
It's not about how many friends you have
    or how accepted you are.
It isn't about if you have plans this weekend
    or if you're alone.
It isn't about who your family is or how much money
    they have or what kind of car you drive.
It isn't about how beautiful or ugly you are.
It isn't about what clothes you wear, what shoes you have
    or what kind of music you listen to.
It's not about what clubs you are in
    or how good you are at your sport.
It's not about representing your whole being on a piece
    of paper and seeing who will accept the written you.

But life is about who you love and who you hurt.
It's about who you make happy or unhappy purposefully.
It's about keeping or betraying trust.
It's about friendship, used as a sanctity or a weapon.
It's about what you say and mean, maybe hurtful,
    maybe heartening.
It's about starting rumors and contributing to petty gossip.
It's about what judgments you pass and why,
    and who your judgments are spread to.
It's about who you've ignored with full control and intention.
It's about carrying inner hate and love,
    letting it grow and spreading it.

But most of all, it's about using your life to touch 
    or poison other people's hearts in such a way that could
    have never occurred alone.

Only you choose the way those hearts are affected,
    and those choices are what life is all about.

Author Unknown
Printed in Spirit at Work, October 1998