Every once and a while I have to ask myself what success truly means. What does it look like? What does it feel like? Do we even have the capacity to know when we’ve reached our peak and are at our best? Honestly, there is probably no single answer and I don’t want to pretend like I have all of the answers. That being said, if there is one thing that I strongly believe in, it is that the image and definition of success vastly differ from person to person.
Photo by Ambreen Hasan on Unsplash
As I begin my third year at university, quite reluctantly moving towards proper adulthood, I find myself being increasingly exposed to society’s idea of success. Just this past week, I attended a job hunting seminar. I went in with a feeling of dread and a fairly cynical view and, to be honest, I walked out at the end of it only feeling an even deeper sense of despair. I blamed a lot of things for my dismal mood: maybe this was just a natural stage that all job-hunting youngsters had to go through, maybe I was just being a baby, being too anxious, too in-my-head. While all of these may have been true, I think I truly just hated it all. Hated the idea of serving myself up on a silver platter for a future that I wasn’t even sure I wanted.
That doesn’t mean that the people who were in that room with me, eager to improve their job-hunting skills, were wrong and are headed for misery. I’m sure that the students there who dream a wonderful company job were nervous but motivated to begin their next chapter. As those students continue to prepare themselves for the high-pressure promenade that is job-hunting, I find that going through the motions just because it’s the practical to do isn’t good enough for me anymore.
I don’t want to live a life that is measured by numbers, percentages, brand names and dollar signs. I’ve seen people brag about how much money they make and who they know one too many times and have decided that my life will be no such game of claims and comparisons. I want to pursue what I am passionate about no matter how difficult and impractical it may be. I want to spend time with real people with whom I can experience things that money could never buy. I want to see the world with the people that I love and enjoy every moment. For me, that’s what success looks like. To someone else, it may just look like a naïve daydream. Either way, I refuse to give up on it.
Photo by Meiying Ng on Unsplash
The point is, the future is our own. If you see success as a fancy corner office and a private jet, pursue that dream. If you see it as a quaint farm somewhere in the countryside, pursue that dream. The majority will say what they want about how smart you are or how well-equipped you are to achieve what you want, and so on until the end of time. Give what they have to say a chance and then toss it aside because, at the end of the day, you know how much you are worth and what you can achieve.
Thanks for reading! :)