As Winston Churchill once said, “Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

What does success really mean? Is it walking out of a classroom with the ecstatic feeling of acing a test? Or perhaps is it the accumulation of outstanding grades that enables you to enter the school of your dreams? Everyone has varying definitions of what success means to them, and it is what people so often hold as the standard for their lives. Although goals can be useful tools to achieve what each individual defines as success, it becomes unhealthy when reaching those goals becomes the only thing occupying the mind. Especially in Lexington, it is no secret that academic achievement pressures students to perform their best. Expectations are high, and so are the stress levels of many students at Lexington High School. With all of the accumulating pressure, it is important to step back and examine the reasons why we all work so hard. Is it to get into a good college? To get a good job? To make your parents happy? But in the end, what is the point of it all if you never learn to be content? Won’t there always be something more to reach for? 

With this in mind, it is valuable to understand that success is not concrete. Instead, it is an elastic concept that stretches and changes over time as you, your values, and your experiences grow. Achieving one’s current definition of success does not necessarily equate to happiness, nor does it mean that it will come easily. Thus, it is vital to remember that the road to success is often rocky because failure is common and perhaps essential in building the grit needed to execute one’s goals. Moreover, failure simply means that you need to try something from a different approach. It does not mean that you are unintelligent or incapable by any means. As counterintuitive as it seems, success heavily depends on failure, as one grows to learn and builds experience on how to deal with future situations.

So, with all this being said, the next time you don’t get that A+ you wanted so badly, or when you fail an interview for an internship you really wanted, remember it is a part of the process. As long as you look for ways to improve and work with a positive mentality, so often referred to as the growth mindset, know that you will be okay. In the end, we all desire to be happy and successful. You are not alone, and it is never too late to turn things around.