The Moser Messenger: Defining Your Own Success

At the time when I am writing this, the senior class has 256 days until we graduate. I would break that down into hours and minutes and seconds, but that would be unoriginal (and I just don't want to put in the effort to Google it).

I have been going through the phases of senior year for a while now, way before my actual senior year was here. Sometimes my brain says, "Oh my god get me out of here;" sometimes my brain says, "Let's just stay here forever;" and the other times it just says, "Wait, what is school?"

I know that Darlington prepares students for their futures. I know the catalyst-to-a-whole-new-world, Dar-bubbles-are-fun speeches like the back of my hand. It would be wrong to say that I don’t want to graduate. It would also be just as wrong to say that I want to leave.

And I don't mean to sound ungrateful. Darlington really has been a catalyst for me. I will always owe something to the school, but more than that, I will owe the people here that have made it so undeniably epic. I wrote a blog last year that ended with me calling Darlington "an idealistic monolith." I still cringe at that word choice. I was a very pretentious junior. But what I was getting at -- before that pillaging of thesaurus.com -- was all true. I love Darlington. It's a pretty cool place.

During this year's leadership week, we were told to come up with a mission statement for ourselves. Darlington has the "to empower students to learn with passion, act with integrity, and serve with respect" mission statement, right? (Or as I like to say, "to empower students to become generally awesome.") Well, we had to write our own. Here is what mine said:

"To consciously lead as a role model in the lives of underclassmen theatrically, academically and in the leadership positions I hold. Once I finish my senior year, I want to be remembered for my passion and endurance in chasing my potential."

Right? Call up the colleges, ladies and gentlemen. I am a walking deity. Throw me some scholarships.

Every student at Darlington should have a mission statement for themselves. Each student should have a definition of success and never let anyone, teacher or peer, try to tell them that their definition isn't valid. That's one thing that the mission-statement exercise taught me. Define success for yourself.

To reiterate, I love Darlington. But here's the thing: Darlington doesn't last forever. Living by Darlingtonian standards is great and I agree with a lot of what this school preaches. Acceptance, tolerance, learning -- all stellar things to strive for. What can be an unhealthy mistake is to intertwine how you define your own success with how your peers will define success.

For instance, if I was accepted into some Ivy League school, that would be considered a success, right? The Darlington Community would whisper and mutter about how interesting and successful I was. Everyone would think that I was headed for great things -- everyone except for me. Not to diss the Ivy League, but I would rather suffocate than go to one. I would be seen as successful to everyone except myself, because my needs for success and happiness lay elsewhere -- WAYYYY elsewhere.

What I challenge you to do -- teachers, students, literate faculty pets -- is to come up with your own mission statement. Come up with a vision for how you define success. If you have a guideline, something more than what the Darlington Community wants from you, but what you want from you, you will walk across the stage at graduation and be able to breathe easy.

Success is what you make of it. Some of us only have 256 days left to reach for it. Carpe Diem.