The Big Picture

This week as I settled into my internship and organized all of my syllabi, I sat and gazed across the piles of paperwork that will dictate my time over the next 3 and half months. In my head, I’m thinking of time management and adding deadlines to my datebook in effort to stay organized and efficient. As I’m doing so, I start to think about the concept of success. What does success really mean? After all, it is highly subjective…to each, their own. How am I going to be successful beyond my mandatory projects, papers, and presentations? In the big picture at the end of road, how and what will make me feel accomplished? This leads me to share one of my favorite poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson…

Success

To laugh often and much

To win the respect

of intelligent people

And the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation

Of honest critics and endure

the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty,

To find the best in others;

To leave the world

A bit better, whether

By a healthy child,

A garden patch

Or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life

Has breathed easier

Because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson