Yeah, I might be putting more up.
For this last one, I'd like to talk about my personal definition of SUCCESS.
It probably won't be anything surprising.
The public's definitions of some words are more concrete than others.
Perhaps, if I asked you the meaning of living?
Well, that would be hard to say. Breathing? Beating heart? Working mind? Experiencing the world?
How about the meaning of yolk?
That's easy. It's the yellow part of an egg that holds nutrition.
See? That difference? SUCCESS is in between, though. It is closer to yolk, thankfully.
So. My personal definition of SUCCESS is:
Doing the BEST
YOU
can
do
to do what you want and/or need ,
even if it's not what you SHOULD do.
Did you read that with CLEAR . AND . EX . ACT . EM . PHA . SIS ?
No?
Then I want you to go back. I'm trying to be informative. And philosophical. It's kinda rude to skip. I guess you can. If you want to. I probably wouldn't even find out unless you told me.
You can skip if you want to. It's a long read anyways.
Continuing on...
"But what does it mean, Annie?" (Asks the imaginary audience, in Annie's head.)
BEST
Well. Doing your best is obvious. It's in the way that people climb Everest.
It's the struggle. It's the passion. It's the blood, sweat, tears, and other bodily fluids.
Like spit.
(Hahah, I know what you were thinking of. Probably. Possibly. Maybe you're thinking about food.)
YOU
Everyone is different. Everyone is an individual. Even twins, identical to the same molecules. Even they live different lives. Because one stands on one side of the other.
So. You may excel where others fail, and you may fail where other's fail.
And you go at your own pace. You do the best that YOU can do. Not the best that the BEST PERSON can do. That person isn't you.
And the best that YOU can do, doesn't mean the best while ignoring your health.
If you need to nap for an hour or two instead of studying? You ███████ do that.
You need to remember that you have to love yourself before you love anyone or anything else.
Love yourself.
You are (probably) human. You (usually) only have one life (or at most 9 lives).
So take care of yourself. Not just physically. Mentally.
If you need a day to watch Netflix or old movies that you watched for the first time when you were 5 and maybe cry a bit because the worst day of your life is happening now?
Do it.
A day of struggling to keep it together is not worth an A+.
SUCCESS is keeping yourself healthy and getting a D because you stayed home to keep your head fixed on your shoulders.
It's the best YOU could do.
Because it's not
"if you push yourself to the limits till you puke",
it's
"if you pushed yourself and paced yourself".
So. So. Does SUCCESS have a measurement?
Yes. Yes it does.
It's your's.
I read a story once. It was short. Three people played Go Fish.
In the end, three of them won.
Because one was ███████████ it and playing a totally different game, because his goal was to make his friends laugh.
And one won.
And the last was entertained.
(That's the point of games. Mario Kart on Rainbow Road is not a game. And Zathura is not a game. Zathura is literally a murder device only given to the very worst of people with the best of intentions.)
(Your intentions.)
(Which are murder.)
(Do not give people Zathura.)
(Or Jumanji.)
(Don't.)
This turned out longer than I wanted. I did say in my introduction that I rambled a lot. But it's hard to be precise. I didn't have enough time to be more precise. (Hahah, what a throw-back that was.)
████ it. That's all I have to say on the matter now.
I don't get why we're doing our Summer Reading on the definition of success when the definition is so obvious. It's just the good feeling. You're not going to be successful even if you've got trillions of dollars unless you're happy with it. But, lets be honest. You are definitely gunna be happy if you had trillions of dollars. Money doesn't mean happy, but financial stability isn't a ███████ curse. Like damn, if I could pay for college. If I could afford a place to stay and be guaranteed to have the things we take for granted. Like general safety, substantial food, clean water, shelter, clothing, furniture (bed, tables, chairs, etc), cleaning utilities (shower/bath, shampoo, conditioner, etc, deodorant, lotion, etc.), electronics (desk comp, laptop, tablets, phones, smart phones, gaming systems, handhelds, etc), internet connection. My future is so NOT SOLID that I am terrified and I am NOT sure if I am going to be successful, because not having even three of those things is a THING that could happen. Rock bottom is a type of success. It means you can work your way up.
Perspective is a plus. At least I have perspective. And reluctant, paranoid, painfully sarcastic and vague optimism.
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