How philosophy changed my life (My story)

My story is not an impressive nor inspirational one. But I'm okay with that. As an introvert, I always rather go unnoticed. However, I still have big aspirations. I know I was put (or casually landed) on this Earth to make an impact. 

From a very young age I noticed I experienced the world differently.  Even as a kid, when all of my classmates would run and scream all the time, calling for attention, I just wanted to stay quiet and observe (them) without being disturbed. Maybe that's why I like movies so much. As I grew up, the alienating feeling of not fitting in grew as well. I would just stay inside my house all day, reading or listening to music. It's no surprise at all that some of the first people I connected to were, in fact, misfts too. Among them were Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, Virginia Woolf, Franz Kafka and thousands of fictional characters. But then, one day, I came across a new type of book, which perfectly described the feeling of not knowing who you are or the reason for being in this world. But the novelty in this book was that instead of giving in to this feeling, like the characters of most book I read, this one actually tried to find a reason for it aswell as a way to overcome it. That was my first encounter with philosophy- and it changed my life forever. 

Stoicism is one of the schools that teaches how to overcome harsh situations. For stoics, happiness is found in accepting the moment as it presents, not allowing oneself to be controlled by the desire for pleasure or fear of pain.

Now I'm 21 years old and I'm majoring in Philosophy. I can't say that I no longer feel alienated from this world -I doubt that feeling will ever go away-, but it sure does not longer possess me. Because I know that I'm not the only one that feels this way. I've learnt that, in fact, this feeling is what makes us human. I no longer try to escape it, instead I embrace it because it enables my capacity of meditating and thus, learning Philosophy.

So what are my plans for the future? Well, remember I said I have big aspirations? My goal is to one day become a philosopher myself. No, I don't want to live in a barrel like Diogenes or poison myself like Socrates (at least not for now). What I would really love to do is to investigate and write about the human condition for a living. I know I still have a long way to go- I am still a student and my country is not funding humanities due to economic crisis. But I won't let that discourage me. When I found out about Steemit I saw it as an opportunity to begin practising. And if I can make a few dollars on the way, that would be awesome too! But really, I'm here mostly to find out what the rest of world is thinking, and add my two cents on the topic. Always based on logical arguments, as Aristotle would've wanted.