“Live for experience. Whether we fail or succeed - does not matter - because without one another, we would never be able to differentiate between the two.”

As human beings, we misconstrue our identification of failure and success. It’s a practicality in which we all misuse. Failure is seen as the inability to accomplish while success is the polar opposite; the ability to accomplish. I don’t think the argument I’m here to make is the definition of those compatible words, no. My argument is within one word; accomplish. Who determines what we can and can not prosper at? The answer should be no one, but, we all know that simply is not the case. Societal standards, whether it be as a collectivist group or a single member of society, catalyzes us to relish in our own detriments that society tells us we have. With those detriments, we dwell. We fight so hard to reflect who we are as individuals that we forget what we’re even doing within that process - for most, it’s mere existence. Anything beyond that existence would be foreign. We get so wrapped up in what we look like, who we portray ourselves as, and how we associate with others, that we forget what we’re here to do. We aren’t here to live through predisposed circumstances that define who we are. I firmly believe in the ability one has is simply within the limits one place holds onto oneself. Anything within the world is achievable. A wise man once told me, you don’t have to work yourself into the ground until you achieve your dreams - you just have to work harder than everyone else. Within that quote, I realized something; part of success is failing.

Failure is simply a word. There are a lot of stigmas attached to the word, but the one that is often overlooked is my favorite of them all; experience. Failure is part of the experience. Learning is an experience in which we grow. Growing is part of life. You see, failure is inscribed in us as we live through time and space. Failure is a natural humanistic experience that occurs endlessly through our lifetime.

Don’t listen to society and their expectations or norms. Never live up to them or become victim of them. It’s only a vicious cycle. Because situations like this are causing global issues;

Society will tell you to wear these clothes and go to a party, because that’s just what college kids do, but when you get taken advantage of because you were wearing something too promiscuous, society will look you in the face and tell you that you were “asking for it”.

Society will tell you to pursue your dreams, but you’re not going to be successful if you don’t go to college after high school. When you go to college and don’t find anything of interest, society gets mad that you wasted their money because they work every day and contribute to society by paying taxes to fund an education they told you that you would need in order to be successful.

Society will expect you to respect your elders while you idly sit and witness the disrespect they radiate, and when you’ve had enough and speak your mind, you get told that you need to respect your elders. After all, they’ve been on earth longer than you, they’ve earned the right to disrespect anyone younger than themselves, remember?

Society will expect you to bury your head in math and science textbooks because that's where the most reliable jobs are to project the economy in a positive direction, but the arts isn’t as important, because god forbid that people creative intelligent entities that realize how broken our societal expectations are.

The reality of the situation is that society is broken. Being consumed in what society tells you to do will result in the definitive understanding that you are not worth more than what society makes you out to be. No one can determine who you need you to be at any given moment, that identification of who you want to be, is no one's decision but your own.