What are you going to do after you graduate? This question has been posed to most of the senior class over and over this past year. Many of us are prone to provide answers such as “go to college and get rich.” This, unfortunately, is almost oxymoronic; in fact, most of us will be in debt up to our eyeballs for many years to come. Nevertheless, the point is that every member of the class of 2006 wishes to be successful in later life. We all have great dreams about how to accomplish this task, but it seems as though we have placed the cart in front of the proverbial horse on this issue. By what standard do we measure success, and for that matter who set this standard up to begin with?

“Try not to become a man of success, but rather a man of value.” Albert Einstein once offered up these words of advice, and for the most part my views are in accord with his, yet I feel as though his quotation is a bit incomplete. On this note, let the record show that I have just disagreed with one of the greatest minds in history. In doing so, I propose that I have become either a genius or a complete moron. In any case, I present to you his slightly modified quote. “Try not to become a man of success, but rather a man of value... and success will naturally follow.”

To become men and women of value is to know where you stand on important issues and not be afraid to defend your position to those who oppose you. Other people will see strength in simply holding to your beliefs and, most likely, they will respect you for it. Nonetheless, you cannot be closed minded. Be open to new ideas, but do not believe everything you hear without first investigating the issue. Understand the importance of family in your life. Instead of merely coexisting with your siblings, try to support and care for each other, as family disharmony only causes problems in later life. Do not harbor bitter feelings toward others, it harms you as much as the person you despise, and there may come a time when they are the only people you can turn to.

Take your future studies seriously. Have fun, but do not waste your youth on frivolous things. As you live your life, do not feel inferior to those who establish what you feel are higher, more important goals than yours. Always remember, the millionaire business man is no more successful than the blue collar worker who desires to simply provide for his children. The high class attorney is no more triumphant than the stay-at-home mom who does her best to ensure that her children will always have someone to turn to.

Do what you love and give it everything you have. Live a life that is meaningful, and encourage others to do the same. Any time that I am dissatisfied with my own performance in school, whether it be a musical selection that I didn’t play perfectly or a grade that wasn’t what I expected, my dad’s most famous question to me is always, “Did you do your best?” Every time, after answering yes, he always reassures me by saying, “Well, if you did your best, then that’s all that matters.” At the end of the day, if you can say that you have done your best, you will have achieved your goal of success.

Everyone measures success differently. Much of society feels that success is a term reserved for the wealthy; others believe that success is tied directly to fame, or it perhaps found by living a good life and doing good deeds. Rather than attempting to use my own wisdom to define success, I would like to quote a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson, which he appropriately named “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 big 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.