In 1958, when a struggling friend questioned the meaning of life, 20-year-old Hunter S. Thompson sent him a poignant and precocious letter, in which he writes:
That IS the question: whether to float with the tide, or to swim for a goal. It is a choice we must all make consciously or unconsciously at one time in our lives. So few people understand this! Think of any decision you’ve ever made which had a bearing on your future: I may be wrong, but I don’t see how it could have been anything but a choice however indirect — between the two things I’ve mentioned: the floating or the swimming. [...]
It is not necessary to accept the choices handed down to you by life as you know it. There is more to it than that — no one HAS to do something he doesn’t want to do for the rest of his life.
Read more here, then see this marvelous vintage illustrated satire of conformity by an equally precocious high school girl.