I’ve always thought that being in someone else’s life and having the power to influence and impress others was the greatest privilege of life. One of my greatest fears is not being mattered in life and the thought of being completely alone leaves me terrified. Therefore, I have always surrounded myself with others and did the things I did to impress others. I always lived in the ‘comfort zone’ and tried to surpass others’ expectations. However, life quickly caught up with me because I was stretching myself too thin to satisfy everyone and I began to question what my definition of success is.
I’ve always believed that success in life is to be finally stable, find love, and help others reach their success. Don’t get me wrong… I still think all of the mentioned before can be a person’s definition of success; however, I would like to add one more criteria: in my definition of success, I want to be my best, not the best considered by others.
Being at UCLA, you are constantly challenged and compared to the achievements made by other students. You are told to challenge yourself to be the very best; however, as college progressed, trying to be the best became harder and being the best didn’t necessarily provide the satisfaction as it used to. I’ve learned that even if I fail, I guess knowing that I tried MY best and having no regrets about the decisions I made allow me to be happy.
So what more do I want for the process of searching for success? To be honest, after thinking about this question for days, I came up with nothing. Why? Because I know that the support from my friends and family will allow me to survive through the journey no matter what happens. Even if I fail, I will consider it a great experience because life has to be imperfect for us to know that we’re real.
So why do I do what I do? Because I want to matter in life and I owe it to myself to be the best I could be.
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