Friends of Quinn

Well with my dyslexia I’d probably have to either look it up or wait for the red wiggly line to appear below it to tell me it's wrong. Of course that would be the literal translation, the blog this week is talking about the definition of someone being successful. How can we give success one definition? Most of the time it is society and the mainstream’s version of success that we compare our lives too. Jobs, houses, cars, money are the norm of things that identify success. LD people have all kinds of levels of success.

We all need to stop comparing ourselves to others. They are not you and your success cannot be measured by comparing your accomplishments to others. I always compared myself to my friends when I was in school. Most of them were very bright and did terrific in school. They had AP classes and were in honor societies. They got scholarships and trophies for academics. I didn’t.

One night close to graduation I told my mom I was sorry that I didn’t get any scholarships or awards. She looked me right in the eye and said I should never apologize to her for such things because that is what they are, things. She was proud of the person I was. It was wonderful that many of my friends got those honors and worked hard for them, but that didn’t mean I was less then them. She told me she was proud of the person I was, a kind, caring, compassionate person with a fantastic work ethic and manners. Those are life long traits that take you far in life. Lots of things can be “learned” but without a good, decent personal base, what did those other things matter.

Measure your success in small steps. Make goals that you can reach, but most of all believe in yourself and surround yourself with other people who believe in you too. My mom is kind of a quote junkie, but one of her favorite people to quote is Eleanor Roosevelt. I particularly like this one and can relate to it so very much.

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.”

I think that most LD people face some form of personal horror or fear everyday. So if you face it and move on, I would say that to me, that is the definition of success.