Today, students may feel the pressure to become successful, but what does being successful look like? Is it wealth? An education? Happiness? Who decides what “successful” is and how to achieve it?  

Junior Max Thornton has a unique take on the definition of success.

“I think for me, success isn’t really something that I’m ever able to attain. It’s something that kind of gives my life meaning,” Thornton said. “So, I think for me, success is just the ever present pursuit of that kind of happiness where I’m able to just be fulfilled.”

Thornton thinks of success in broader terms, not just the here and now.

“I think success would just be, at the end of my life, when I’m kind of just sitting there kind of thinking back on what I did, I think just having lived an interesting and like, successful life. It doesn’t even have to be monetarily, I just know that I lived, you know, a life that’s unique to me,” Thornton said.

He says the meaning of success is different for everyone and that no one success story is the same. One example is of his sister.

“I think success applies to everybody. My sister definitely finds success in being true to herself. She never, I kind of admired this a lot about her, she never really changes who she is, right? Some people change who they are, some people are pack animals really. She never changes who she is,” Thornton said. “So I think success is really an individual thing.”

Thornton tries to keep his sister’s philosophy of staying true to yourself throughout life.

“I think success for everybody is just defined by: I look back, you know, with maybe one or two regrets, but I can die knowing that I did something true to myself.” Thornton said.

Senior Natalie Greene defines success as having multiple meanings.

“Honestly, I think there are different kinds of success,” Greene said. “There’s emotional success, like understanding empathy and helping others and stuff like that. But there’s also physical success, like you ran a race and you won, or you scored a goal.”

Greene feels successful in what she has achieved, for example her academic accomplishments and independence from her parents. One thing she is especially proud of is her sister.

“Well, I mean, my little sister is like, definitely my world,” Greene said. “So, I see success in the things that I’ve taught her and get to hear, for example, the good things that she does that I’ve taught her how to do.”

Greene says a way to find success can be through meeting new people and watching how they find success to tailor them towards yourself and the things that you want to do with your life.

“You know, when you’re trying new things, you can find new things that you like and then when you find things that you like, you may change your idea of success and become happier and more passionate about things,” Greene said. “Then it makes life a lot more enjoyable.” 

Senior Austin Raymer defines success as one’s accomplishments.

“Success is: You make a goal and basically you reach it by yourself or like, you have somebody else help you reach it but it’s kind of like an accomplishment for yourself and kind of proving to other people that you can do that by yourself,” Raymer said. “Just creating that big milestone that makes you feel proud of yourself. Yeah, that is success in my mind.”

When finding success, Raymer says it is something that you have to go after.

“Success you can’t really find,” Raymer said. “It’s kind of like you have to go and take it, create a path to what you think you want your success to be like. To get the job that you’ve always wanted, go out of your way and try to get that job or create steps to get that job. If you need help you can always ask somebody but it’s not something you kind of find, you have to get it, or it comes to you.”

For anyone wanting to succeed, Raymer says,“You have to find your own path, which is kind of like finding success, but it’s finding your way to it. You already know what that success is like in your mind.”