WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF LIFE?

A woman walks towards me and stops, she knits her fingers together as if she doesn't quite know what to do with them. She takes a stadying breath, exhales slowly and looks me straight to my core.
"What is the purpose of life?"
The way she says it reveals she is at a turning point in her life, she has been through many heartbreaking situations, hers and others, she is asking this with a distinct tone of despair in her voice.
"The purpose of life is to figure out who you are. Ask yourself, Who Am I?"
She is quiet and looks at the earth around our feet, obviously thinking.
"I'm a woman, I'm 32, I come from a long line of farmers and rednecks, but I've changed my..."
"Hold. That is not who you are. Thinking this is who you are has made your life unnessecarily hard and painful. When I say to ask that questing I mean, truly ask it, emerge yourself in the world, find who we all are by asking, reading, studying, learning what is the truth."
"I... I don't even know how to begin?!"
"Begin how most people begin. Pick a religion."
"I'm already a christian, how..."
"There is no need for you to buy France just because you want to visit Paris."
She remains quiet, thinking for a while.
"You mean to say that I should look beyond the dogma to the heart and soul of what is christianity?"
"And after that, if you do it right it will feel natural to look at other religions, but again don't over extend yourself to follow every word of every man who has taken interest in the religion."
"And after that?"
"After that you will know for yourself what to do. I am a signpost, not the journey or the destination, that is all you. And when you are at your destination don't be afraid to be a signpost. To be a sign is to be equal to others, not higher not lower, to be a sign is to fullfill each other for the highest good of all."