Life can be as big and important as you make it out to be. Or it can be as
small and insignificant as you make it out to be. When I say this, I'm not
talking about the saying "Life is what you make of it", which has more to do
with meaning "If something's going to happen, you have to make it happen".
I'm talking about "Life is what you perceive it as", which has more to do
with the classic dismissal, "It's all relative".
  Some people see life as grand and multifaceted; So much to see and do, so
many things going on in the world, one person could never keep track of all
of it in one lifetime. Others take the opposite viewpoint, seeing life as
inconsequential; Nothing they do seems to matter much, and although there are
a lot of people in the world, none of them seem to be doing anything
particularly important or interesting; Rather, they go about their daily
tasks of living. No matter how you live your life, eventually it will end and
the world at large will not have changed much for it.
  Both viewpoints are correct. It all has to do with how you see things. Some
people tend to (or like to) see things as big and complex, others see things
as small and simple.
  When I was a small child, I used to wonder why people made such a big deal
out of things in life; People would devote hours or days of their time to a
single purpose, something that, to me, seemed unnecessary and time-consuming.
Why throw all that time and effort into doing something you didn't have to
do? Why were people so emotionally touched, and why did they dwell so much on
events that happened in their lives? Why make such a big deal out of it? It
all seemed rather silly to me, as I enjoyed things which were simple, and I
felt that people were unnecessarily complicating an already-complicated
world.
  Many years later, I struggled through a difficult time in my life, trying
to find a purpose in life and fighting off thoughts of suicide. It seemed
that nothing I did, and nothing I could do, was of any importance. After a
few years of living fairly aimlessly, I finally made the connection: I was
perceiving everything as pointless. If you perceive life as pointless, it
will appear pointless. That sentence may seem ridiculously obvious, but try
telling that to the scores of people who are also trying to find their
purpose in the world.
  It's a fairly simple concept, and yet it is so elusive: If you tend to view
things as unimportant and insignificant, then you will have a hard time
justifying your own life. If you are going to live, you will have to care
about something. Otherwise every day will be a battle against yourself.
  Compared to a world one million times larger than ours, our world probably
would seem pretty small and simple. On the other hand, compared to a world
one million times smaller, our world would probably seem huge and
fascinating. Life really is what you make of it, not because you have the
power to change your life (often you don't), but rather because you have the
power to change how you perceive your life.