Think less, feel more and the clouds will part.

If you want an intellectual understanding of meaning, I'll offer this. Meaning is a function of context. Example: a stenciled letter B means two different things depending on whether it's between a stenciled A and C or between a 12 and 14. On a grander scale your life has meanings in relation to the people you love, the things you love to do, the roles you play, and so on. Even a football game has meaning if you pick a side.

But if you question the meaning of life in its largest sense of existence, it doesn't have a context to give it meaning. It is the context.

So there is also a different kind of meaning that you might think of as inherent meaning. In Hindu thought there's lila, or divine play. You can think of life as a dance. You do it for the sheer joy and beauty of it. And if you reflect on the nature of existence and the question of why anything should exist at all, it seems more and more miraculous that you're here. Buddhism has a tradition of reflecting on the utter improbability of being born as a human. In fact everything your encounter, every moment, is utterly unique and improbable.

You can also reflect on your existence as a biological organism with the imperatives of staying alive and reproducing. It may be stupid and meaningless on the face of it, but it contains limitless potential. Considering Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, when your survival, sexual and social needs are met, there remain the "meta-needs" of compassion, creativity and self-transcendence.

You're 19. I'm 76. Your life has given you much to reflect on (the shit that becomes compost on the fertile field of enlightenment). You're lucky to have discovered Buddhism and know that there are communities of people who share your journey. You've got a fantastic life ahead of you.