Here's a story for you:

There's a little girl. She grows up in a duplex, not in an unmentionable part of town, but not the wealthy part either. Not to get you wrong, she grows up nice. Good friends, a loving family, a happy childhood. Despite all this though, she still spent her time gazing at the white picket fences. She spent her time refusing to wear the knock off Hollister jeans from GoodWill. She spent her time wanting to live in the home where the ceiling was in her mind at the time, the size of the Empire State Building. She spent her time wishing her friend's in-ground pool she swam in, was a pool she herself owned. She spent her time wishing for a fantasy, one that was built on mounds of dollar bills. She thought that money was how success was measured.

10 years later, and that little girl has changed a lot. She majors in Media and Journalism at the University of South Dakota. She chose to educate herself in a career in which most people say, "There's no money in that," or "That's a tough field to crack." She didn't care though. She didn't care about the salary, she no longer sat there wishing for a white picket fence of her own. Instead, she wished for a life filled with knowledge, wisdom and self growth. She wished for a life where she would find herself and her passion, and thrive at that. And those wishes, the ones she now holds close to her heart, those wishes make success what it is.

Success is not measured in money. Just because one has money does not make them an honorable person, or a person who has achieved more than you yourself has. We don't know their story. There are many people with a large bank account out there, and with those white picket fences, who are con-artists, drug dealers, and thieves. And to me, something like that is not success, but far from it.

In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, there are two definitions for success, side by side each other I might add. The first: favorable or desired outcome. The second: the attainment of wealth, favor, or eminence. As you probably know by now, I prefer the first definition.

You see, success if a measure of ourselves. It is who we become. It is what we learn in life and achieve. It is being proud of the person we are. It is reaching the desired outcome in which we've always wanted for ourselves. And while success is different in everyone's eyes, and I do realize that to some, sailing on a yacht and having 3 houses may be that success, I live my life another way, as many individuals I'm sure do as well.

No matter your vision is of this, aim for your kind of success. Don't grow up thinking that if you don't have that white picket fence, that success isn't what you can achieve. Because we are all capable of this, in our own way.