SUCCESS

In today's society we are constantly exposed to what success looks like in the mainstream. Nice cars, fancy home, stellar clothes, popularity all help define what the world's success looks like. Throughout my life I have been one in hot pursuit of the material. In middle school, it was not uncommon for me to constantly bug my parents about getting the latest air Jordan's. In my mind I thought if I could get a pair of Air Jordans I could be just like Michael Jordan. One morning reality began to set in deeply. My mom handed me a box that contained a pair of bright white shiny new Jordans. Moments before my middle basketball tryout I laced my new Jordans and hit the court. MUCH to my dismay, I quickly realized I wasnt Mike when my name was called out to be on the B team. On that day I realized that my idea of success was incredibly tainted. Throughout my living years I have learned to view success a little differently. I now view success as a person willing to take a great amount of risk to make this world better than they found it...I think Theodore Roosevelt sums it up best when he said
"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.