Sunday, March 30, 2008

Succeeding Through Strife...SAT style!

"If at first you don't succeed, dust yourself off and try again", a commonly used phrase, used to encourage those who feel like failure has come there way. In my opinion it is a great aspect of success to have the ability to overcome any obstacles thrown in your direction.

There are many opinions as to what success really means. To some success maybe obtaining a really high paying job, getting an outstanding grade on your report card or even earning enough money to go to college. Success can be seen in many different ways, but to be able to reach the point of success is where the value truely lies. In our world today success is seen as after gaining the required knowledge of higher education, obtaining a good paying job and fulfilling your dreams. Does the ability to succeed come without obstacles and challenges, no, of course not. To truely hold value to success the road taken to reach that point is important.

A great example of this in media today are current music artists. For instance the raper Sean Combs also known as Diddy has reached a higher level of success that most people fantasize about. Combs had a tough life before he became a music artist. Growing up in tough neighborhoods all his life and having family issues didn't stop him from reaching his set goal. To get to this point he went through many difficulties in life, from leaving home, to watching his best friend die right before his eyes. Typically, situations like those would discourage people from continueing on with their dreams of being successful, but it didn't stop him. So now he holds an abundant amount of pride because he knows he has overcame tough situations which cause his amount of success to be more valueable to him and the people around him.

My mother finds herself extremely successful not because she has degrees, or a good job, but because she has managed to raise three children on her own. This to me is great success because a huge challenge that she went through was losing her husband. This maybe the biggest obstacle someone has to go through with three children to raise. In the end she succeeded and made it through. Challenges are essential to success because with success comes failure, and in order to fully succeed you must have the ability to pick up the pieces and head toward your dreams of succeeding.

1 comment:

Laurie's MY name said...

This was a tough assignment for me. I honestly had no idea what I was supposed to write but I got it done and got a 5 out of 6 so it was really exciting. So this essay was written in a really short period of time and it came out better than I thought it would.