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| Thursday, August 17, 2006 |
| What Do You Need to Accomplish to Consider Yourself a Success? |
Whenever a group of friends gathers every year, wether it be on a river, at a concert, or even just at a bar, certain traditions are bound to begin. For my high school friends, the tradition IS the trip. Every year we gather at a Dave Matthews Band concert in Boston. For the college friends that I just took a trip with, the traditions are many. Friday night is supposed to be the calmest of the parties (though it's never anything close to calm). The first person to pass out must get written on. Chipotle must be had for lunch on Sunday afternoon. These are just a few. Some of the others aren't so "Mom" friendly.
But by far my favorite tradition of Eddypolusa is Sunday night. for while there is a campfire every night we're on the St. Croix, Sunday night is the night that we all sit around together, lazily sipping our drinks, and ask eachother questions. Each person asks one, and everyone in the circle has to answer. The questions range from raunchy to thought provoking to all out odd, but laughs and tears almost always involved.
This year, a question was posed that stuck with me. "What would you need to accomplish to consider yourself a success?" My placement in the circle put me as the last person to have to answer the question, and almost immediately I began thinking of answers. I want to publish a book someday. I want to raise a family someday. The list goes on. But as I listened to all of my friends answers, all of them legitimate, I realized something. I'm already there.
It sounds cheesy and stupid, and I read somewhere that "happy blogging doesn't work" but I just don't care. See, I'm twenty-six years old. I've lived a life that a lot of people out there couldn't have dreamed of, even if I deem it relatively ordinary. I have the most amazing family in the world, friends that would stand by me through anything, I've loved, and I've lost, and I've loved some more. I don't need people to remember my name generations from now, I just need those that I love to know I love them (and let's be honest, I'm not exactly shy about telling people) and to know, in my heart, that I've lived as much as I could.
So now I pose the question to you, dear readers (if anyone is even still reading since I have been slacking lately with the posts - bare with me everyone, it's been a busy couple weeks): What do you need to accomplish to consider yourself a success?Labels: drinking, friends, self-improvement |
posted by FINY @ Thursday, August 17, 2006   |
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| 5 Comments: |
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oh my gosh, finy, i wish i had the energy to answer this question. i'm actually in the middle of it every day now, trying to figure it out for myself. i'm kind of amazed in how my priorities and goals have kind of shifted in the last year, and how on the one hand i feel like that's progress, but on the other hand i feel like i'm standing on quicksand. because what if my priorities just keep shifting, and i never settle on a direction or a plan?
which is a silly concern, but one i have nonetheless.
and also, what's interesting for me is that i have no real interest in having or raising kids, and given the way our society works, that leaves a big hole in the area of "what's supposed to fulfill you in life, woman." i know that that won't fulfill me, but i don't have a lot of other cultural examples of what might. so i'm working on figuring that out.
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"Some of the others aren't so "Mom" friendly"
When you first told me about your blog you were adamant that you would not censor your entries just because I would be reading them. I don’t think you’re being fair to your readers, or me, to leave things out just because you’re afraid of my reaction.
Right now you just have my imagination going wild thinking of all the things you could have done!
Love you.
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Hahahaha. God I love you, Mom.
Ok, fine the one tradition I was thinking of doesn't actually involve me. Or hasn't up to this point. There's a tradition we like to call the "Naked Man Carosel" that happens around the bed of whoever tries to sneak up to the loft to hook up while the party is still going on.
Also Mom, I know you do it to avoid spelling errors, but if you write a comment in Word and then cut and paste it in, you've got to replace all the apostrophes and quotes in order to make it come out right.
Love you.
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I know but I thought if you could do it so could I!
Love you
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I'm not sure I've decided yet, but I got goosebumps when I read the question. I'm sure I'll think about this a lot this weekend.
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oh my gosh, finy, i wish i had the energy to answer this question. i'm actually in the middle of it every day now, trying to figure it out for myself. i'm kind of amazed in how my priorities and goals have kind of shifted in the last year, and how on the one hand i feel like that's progress, but on the other hand i feel like i'm standing on quicksand. because what if my priorities just keep shifting, and i never settle on a direction or a plan?
which is a silly concern, but one i have nonetheless.
and also, what's interesting for me is that i have no real interest in having or raising kids, and given the way our society works, that leaves a big hole in the area of "what's supposed to fulfill you in life, woman." i know that that won't fulfill me, but i don't have a lot of other cultural examples of what might. so i'm working on figuring that out.