the difficulty of self-determination Kovaleva Vladislava Ufa State Petroleum Technological University March 1, 2018 “You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.” Albert Camus I t is difficult to be exactly who you are, not what you would like to be. Awareness of oneself, one's abilities and personal predestination leads to an understanding of one's place in life. We often ask ourselves "What's next?", "How will my future shape?" We are like two-month-old kittens that only recently saw the light and do not know how to live. They need care and support for their continued existence. But what do they really need? We are completely out of the way. We do not know what we want. We were disappointed in everything, as previously seen meaning. We have outlived our worst fears and the most cherished dreams, but how to live and what can help us understand? There are too many questions, but no answers at all. When we cannot understand something, we hide. We start to rush from one activity to another. We try to find ourselves, while losing. All our uniqueness, all inner selves wink out. We look at our reflection in the mirror and see only the skin without essence as Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark1 1 hamlet without the prince a performance or event taking place without the principal actor