What is the purpose of life?

I always wonder and think of the purpose of our life to be born into this world. Last week, a lecturer of mine in the Uni passed away at very young age of around 40. She had so much going for her, bright and intelligent but she succumbed to a congenital disease. She was a loss to the nation as she was an excellent researcher.
It makes us wonder what is important in our life. Is it wealth, materialistic things, status, power, or is it the simple things that matter? You never know when you are going to die...It could be today, tomorrow or next month but I guess the most important thing is to live today and everyday as if it is the last day. When we think of that, we would not be busy occupying ourselves in the pursue of wealth until we forget our family, our friends and the people around us. In the end, these things be it wealth, status and power are things that we could not bring it together with us when we die.
The only thing that we can leave in this world is our contributions, how much we have made people happy, how many people we have helped and how many people have we left a lasting impression.
Life is so fragile and impermanent. I need to reaffirm and re prioritize my directions and purpose so I would not spend my life in vain and I would not regret it even though I may be gone today.