What Is Success To You Essay

College is a time in which students make choices that often set the course for the rest of their lives, and students are constantly being pressured to be successful in what they do. Success is a vague term that can be difficult to define however, and as such is nearly impossible to live up to. An important first step in achieving success than, is defining it, and while success can mean different things to different people, this paper will seek to provide a personal definition for success and examine what that looks like for me. Oliver Wendell Holmes writes in his poem The Voiceless, “Alas for those that never sing, but die with all their music in them” (Holmes), and this line gets at the underlying ideas behind success. It acknowledges that …show more content…
Though I have thought about my future frequently, and tossed around many variations of what the details could look like, I really have no idea what it will look like, so I have to resort to a definition when defining success for me personally. Earlier in the paper, success was defined as working hard to realize one’s full potential to make a difference in the world, and living life to the fullest in view of mortality and eternity, and if I achieve that I will have been successful. I do want to have an influential and respected career, and I would love to make a name for myself as a musician, but to me the level I take these things is not the only factor in whether or not I consider myself successful. Success to me is becoming the best I can be in all that I do, prioritizing things that have eternal significance, and living every moment to the fullest. I believe that if I can become someone who lives out this definition, I will be able to take advantage of the opportunities that come my way, make the most of the time I have been given, and achieve true