Success is a relative concept. The term may broadly refer to satisfactory results due to the achievement of certain goals, but there is a huge range of possibilities if we talk about those. Mainly, everyone could agree that success is the motivation behind most of the efforts, risks and even sacrifices we may take throughout our lives. A clear idea from a young age about what is so worthy to achieve for us would surely help us to determine the right direction to follow. It would save us a lot time and, who knows, maybe even the “sacrifice” part of it. But a good definition for success usually doesn’t come to our minds at a young age. When it’s time to decide what that is and how and where to find it, when it’s time to take one road instead of another, most of us are not that clear yet about what that powerful word actually means.
And it is logical, after all, success lacks a universal definition; it is one of those terms which changes its meaning from one person to another, from one generation to another, and it even changes from one day to the next.
I was 16 years old when my English teacher asked everyone in class about our dream professions. I still remember how she freaked out after hearing my answer. I was fine with any kind of job, as long as it was part-time and would leave me some time to think. (My very committed English teacher, her compassionate and terrified expression… and the acid teenager me enjoying the scene). But now I realize, she was somehow right, I was after all too young at that time, maybe too old to not have the ambitions I was expected to have, but definitely too young to know how to achieve that which I wanted to achieve.
What success is for every one of us is not as clear as we would wish. Circumstances, emotions, experiences, and time are entropic elements that play a big role in it. I’m still waiting for the light of maturity to fall on me, for the grace of knowledge and the blessing of consciousness to let me know what is the road to success. And about the dream profession... well, so far I stick with the one of the sixteen-year-old me.
