Defining Success

        So far, my life has been full of being unsuccessful.Not a single day would pass by without one of my failures being pointed out to me, be it by my parents, friends, teachers, or just any random occurrence that can be tied to a failure. For instance, when I go to Chabot, I realize I've failed in getting me act together. If I had not procrastinated in signing up for universities or state colleges, my parents would not have to lecture me day in day out about attaining he highest grades possible to transfer to an acceptable four year institution. But in order to understand that feeling of being a failure, I must also know what it feels like to succeed. One of which can be described in a form of victory. When you come out to be the victor in a competition that you have trained several weeks for, it leaves a sweet feeling of success. In the early ages of my childhood, my father believed I would be able to go far in playing basketball. At the age of eight I joined the YMCA basketball team. We had practice five days a week for two hours. Each day we would run, do drills, and have practice matches. It was a gruesome practice for eight year old children. At the end of the three month session, we would have a match against other YMCA teams, yes apparently there were other teams in the area. I was not the best at basketball, considering many of my team mates towered over me and the fact that I had almost no ability to make the ball go into the hoop. The only thing I was good at were rebounds and being on defense, when I go into offense I have no ability to shoot but I was able to control the ball and assist pretty well. My team was down a measly two points. My team only needed one three point shot to win this game or two two point shots. Since nobody had the ability actually make a three point shot with confidence, we all decided to go with closer two point shots. There was only five minutes in the game before the coach called in a time-out. He told everyone to just pass it to the person most open near the hoop, so much for any other real advice. The opposing team started the game, they ran down the court in hopes to make a shot to pull away from us, a team mate was able to block it and pass it down, two minutes left. He passed it an open team mate down the court, he was in a pinch, everyone was surrounding him, no chance to make the shot. One minute left, he saw me open so he passed it to me, thirty seconds left. I thought to myself, "Can I really plow through this crowd of people to perform a lay-up? No it's impossible." I was a the three point line, I looked at the hoop and threw the ball. Everyone looked at it in its last seconds, it all counted. *Swish* I made it. My entire team erupted into cheer, and patted me on the back. Well, I'll never be doing that again, because once I made it, I landed on my ankle and twisted it. Oh well, least we won right? That feeling I had of winning by a hair was the feeling of utter success. Though it may seem like luck to me, the people watching were probably thinking that this was all payed off by my hard work.
         Another way to define success is through achievement. A hurdle that must be overcome no matter what the cost. Achievement in anything is a success anyone can feel, through athletics, education, or a goal that has been achieved. Once you have achieved something that you once deemed to be impossible, that itself is a success. In my short swimming career that all started in the second year of high school, I was able to achieve many awards and best times. It all could not have been done without the many months of hard work put behind all of it. I started with times that could easily be beaten by children younger than me, and ended with times that children can still beat, I know it's pitiful, children are way too fast nowadays. I mean look at Michael Andrews, a fourteen year old 6'4" swimming prodigy already going pro quicker than Michael Phelps. He now holds 34 age national age records for swimming. If that itself does not define achievement, I don't know what does. Rather than thinking that he is a "prodigy" or a "genius" it would just put his hard work to waste, he worked hard for those achievements and it was probably not handed to him on a silver platter. We also have the fact that Chris McCandless was able to achieve "ulitmate freedom." Though most people would rather not throw their lives out of the window, Chris was able to achieve something that not many people can have. That would be the idea of "ultimate" freedom. This idea would probably spring from the idea of getting away from society's harsh views on everything. He was able to get away from all the hypocrites and undo the chains of law and order to live out the life he pleased. As people live now, we work slaving away day in and day out in order to make money, we believe that money is out ticket to freedom, but now matter how much we have, we can never achieve enough money. McCandless' father was a very wealthy man. He achieved many things that others only dream of getting, a good job, fame, and fortune. One can only have so much, but Chris' father only sought out for more. As people, achievement is defined by the amount of joy or elation we feel by reaching that goal, that achievement will later turn out to be success if you keep pursuing for that dream.

          Another way to define success is through passion. A passion to follow and a dream to chase is a large goal in life. When you reach your goals and attain your dreams, that would define success in all its glory. Success will always follow after achieving a goal in life, it just means that you were able to push yourself to your limits and achieve something that only seemed like a dream. With said, in Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska, Sara was able to pursue her dreams to be a teacher. In her time period, it was very rare for women to be able to go to college and attain a higher degree, or a degree in anything at all. She being a female and working is something so radical in her family's culture that this dream was seen as impossible. She would literally have to go against the cultural norms that have been followed for decades and become the black sheep of the family. Rather than chickening out on her ambition, she decided to follow through with it and obtain a success that no one her family dared do, the success of passion. She started out with a rough start, running away from home with little money and with little food and no shelter. Rather than giving up like most of the run away children, she kept pushing forward with her passion to become a school teacher. She knew that her life would only get better if she kept it up. When she achieved her dream, her outlook on life was much brighter than it first started when she was with her father. She was able to afford her own house, clothes, and even find the man of her dreams by following this passion of hers that seemed impossible with the little privilege she had. McCandless also had a passion to follow that later led to his success of being free. That passion was to head into the wild and live as one with mother nature. Many people would look down upon his decisions as wasteful or just plain dumb, but it was much more than that to Chris. What he wanted to do was get away from the "fake" faces and fronts that society throws at him. The lies that they lay down in front of each other disgusted him and he hated the fact that he was a part of it. So, he had a passion to get away from it all, to go in to the wild where no one judges you, where you only live on your own accord with your wits and intellect. That passion took him on a journey where he had no regrets, he was actually happy. Rather than having to spend more time in a room cooped up and having no freedoms and only expectations of what to do, he ran away from it all and became something that he wanted to be. This form of success is not something that we see everyday, in fact it might just be once in a lifetime. But with that said, it still is a form of success for he was able to see that his passion was achieved, that's what counts.