What is success?

What is success? Is it a high paying job? Is it being the Val Victorian of your class? Is it owning a fancy home and car? Is it being the best at everything? Many measure successes by how well you did in school, how prestigious of a college you went to, how much you get paid and how important of a job you have. If you’re a lawyer, you live in a fancy home and bring home lots of money. Many would consider you a success, but there is more to success, then high paying jobs, the highest grades and renowned colleges. I believe success comes from the battles you face, the challenges you have overcome and the paths you have taken to get where you are.

For the longest time I thought I was a failure. I went to a two year college with plans to go on to a four year college. Instead, I fell into mental illness and college became a challenge with my learning disability. I was so depressed that I couldn’t function, so I had to take a year off from college and work. After a year of working and therapy I did return to college, but only part time. It took me four years to graduate from a two year college. I thought I had proved my teachers and classmates’ right, I was a loser.

Instead of going on to a four year college, I went to work in a grocery store as a bakery clerk, then a bagger and later a cashier. I wanted to be a journalist, but I only had a Humanities degree. Due to my learning disability I could not complete the requirements for journalism. It seemed as if my dreams were shattered. I was nothing but a grocery store clerk. Had I failed? Was I a nobody just like others predicted?

I couldn’t even continue on with college. All I had was an associate’s degree and I lived at home. I did try a couple times to move out on my own, but I always ended up back with my parents. I not only had a learning disability to work around, but I suffered with mental illness. I recovered for a few years from my illness, then fell back to the bottom again. I got into bad relationships and made poor choices. How could I be considered successful? My mom told me success is not how much money you make but the journey you have traveled and the battles you have won. Even though I couldn’t go on to a four year college, like I planned, I fought through mental illness and worked around a learning disability to earn a degree. Even though I didn’t get a journalism degree I continued to write and submit stories to magazines. My job, at first, didn’t pay a lot, but in time I did pay off my college loans. I stuck with my job despite my illness and prejudice. I worked around my mental illness to keep it. I found a wonderful man and we now own our own home. I fought my mental illness over several years and reached recovery.

My husband and I live in a row house that needs some work, but it’s our home. I’ve kept the same job for twenty-two years and my writing has flourished. I don’t make a lot of money, but my husband and I are happy. Sometimes we struggle from week to week, but I am successful. I fought the obstacles before me to be where I am today. I am successful, because I never quit. I followed a rough path. I pushed through the thorn bushes, I fell down many holes, I fought my demons, but yet I kept going. This is what makes me successful. You don’t need high grades to be successful. If you worked hard for that C that is success. You don’t need a high paying job, a fancy car or go to a major college to be a success. It’s how hard you work for what you have, your determination to overcome the obstacles before you, the roads you traveled that led you to where you are and the happiness you found, that makes you successful. Success is the journey you take and the determination to follow it. If you have done that, you are a success.

I’m a simple everyday person who doesn’t make a lot of money, but I’m no loser. I am successful.