Staffer finds purpose amidst pandemic in Holocaust memoir “Man’s Search for Meaning”

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has struggled to find joy and meaning in my day-to-day activities since the stay-at-home order went into effect. At first I thought coping meant binge-watching all of “Disney’s Fairytale Weddings” on Disney + and eating my feelings. I was a mess. 

Then my mom gave me a very important piece of advice: you choose your own mindset. In order to move forward with my life, I had to find meaning — some sort of purpose that kept me off of Netflix. This reminded me of a book my mom had recommended to me a while back: “Man’s Search for Meaning,” by Viktor E. Frankl. 

After seven years of homeschooling, trust me when I say I’m a book nerd. Once I lost the braces and traded my glasses for contacts, you might not be able to tell. Newsflash — I’m the kid who had a librarian birthday party at the age of eight. Unfortunately, I was also that kid who told you we couldn’t be friends if you liked the movie better than the book. 

That being said, I’m not quite nerdy enough to willingly read a nonfiction book — unless it’s about the Titanic. I mean, really, how are you supposed to connect with the characters if they’re not secretly magic wizards or demigods forced into hiding? That’s why it took me a while to pick this 200-page memoir up. 

But once I did, no one could pry it from my hands. The first half of the memoir follows Frankl’s account of his life as an inmate in Nazi concentration camps — including the infamous Auschwitz. As a survivor of many concentration camps, he describes in graphic detail the cruel and barbarous experiences he went through as he reflects on the inhumane conditions. As Frankl observed the other prisoners, he found that those who could find meaning or purpose in their suffering were the ones who also seemed to find the strength to go on, despite their hopeless circumstances. 

That point hit me like a hard punch. My mom was right. 

Frankl devotes the second half to sharing his theories on life and pursuing happiness. This brings us to his invention of logotherapy — the theory that most humans are motivated by a search for meaning, indicating that the meaning of life is the biggest question on the human mind. 

According to Frankl, meaning is found in three different forms — creating or doing, experiencing something greater than ourselves and in the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering. We can’t avoid suffering altogether, but like my mom told me, we choose how we cope with it. 

Since finishing the book, I decided to evaluate my own life, and ask myself, “Is this or will this be meaningful to me?” I’ve settled on three areas to focus on in my day-to-day activities. These often include reading, exercising, getting fresh air and sunshine everyday and chatting with a friend on FaceTime.

If I wake up in the morning with the mindset that it’s going to be a meaningful day instead of wallowing the day away, I can have a much better experience thanks to Dr. Frankl’s memoir. “Man’s Search for Meaning” influenced me to not only to pursue happiness but to choose a positive mindset and experiences that I find worthwhile. It’s a memoir that illustrates the importance of making the best of what you have — and it’s a must-read for those who need some mental reinforcement in such an uncertain time.