How, is success defined here, I wonder…translated…
In recent years, because of the advance in technology, a lot of the friends and relatives I’d lost touch with were all, reconnected through internet. A while ago, a group of us, college classmates started chatting on LINE. All of a sudden, a strange account name chimed in, and, at the moment, none of us could recognize who that was, later on, we’d finally realized, that it was a classmate who’d lost touch with us, for over three decades. Some stated, “Classmate, you showed, finally!”, and, the other person said, “I couldn’t possibly come out without some form of success first”. Someone else immediately stated, “Why must we rate one another, based off of our successes?”, then, there were those who’d asked him how he’d been, and how they’d missed him since parting, and, there were those who are interested in knowing his marital status, and how many kids he had………and, as I observed, I’d started wondering, WHAT, is the definition of success?
A lot of my former classmates are teaching at community colleges or technical universities, and some already made it to professorship, and about to become a leader in the studies. There are those younger mates who’d become assistant processors, or associate professors already, and I’m still just a lecturer, do I not pale, by comparison to them?
On Facebook, I’d often seen how my friends and families shared the photos of their travels abroad. Norway in Winter, skiing in Canada, in the summers, the Maldives, and Palau. And my wife would often sigh, how after marriage, we’d not even gone to the nearby islands that are territories of Taiwan. And, what made my wife complained the most was, don’t I have any achievements at all?
My relatives’ children are excellent in a foreign language, at a very young age, received a doctorate, from a namely university abroad, and, his dissertation got published in one of those scholarly journals too. Looking at my own son and daughter, after my eldest daughter graduated, she’d started working, and, she’s not even making the 30K salary a month, while my son is still in school, and, nobody knows what kind of a job he will take up after he’d served his army terms. Am I a failure as a father too?
But, in the school I’d worked at for a very long time, I’d gotten along real well with ALL of my coworkers, and, I’d received the title of “Excellent Professor”, is that a sort of an achievement?
Every time around the summer or winter vacations, I’d taken my wife and my mother up north, first, we’d driven to Yunlin to pick up my son who’s still a college student, then, gone to Taipei, to pick up my daughter. Then, the five of us would circle around the island, everything that’s popularized online, are reasons for us, to visit. Putting the smiles on the faces of the members of my family, young AND old, as the head of the household, is that an achievement?
With the mindset to learn, my daughter’s hardworking mannerisms and willingness to learn, and creativity, had gotten the attention of her manager, she’d not worked for a year, and, received several months of bonus as the end of year bonus, and her wages are getting adjusted. My younger son who is in the Communications department, entered into the LOGO making competition of an international sports conference, and, received an award, as his father, I’m so very proud, and, does that NOT count as my success too?
So, the definition of success, is different for everybody, because of the differences of values we have. I believe, that the KEY to being successful lies in “being satisfied with what one has”.
And so, this still just shows, that you should NOT compare yourselves to ANYBODY else, and, just be satisfied, with what you have, that way, you will always feel blessed, NO matter how you compared to the rest of your cohort.