Patrick H.
If you’re reading this, your titles don’t define you.
It can be very easy to go through life and base your success upon the different titles you have.
Whether it be on-campus organizations, internships, or even relationships, we as humans tend to
put our own worth based upon how we think others will perceive us. This makes it very difficult
to deal with things when they don’t work out.
What’s incredible about the life we are all so blessed to have is the fact that every single person
has walked a unique path to get where they are. What we all need to realize is that there is beauty
in finding your own way. Maybe you didn’t get that job or a spot in the organization that you felt
you deserved, but maybe that rejection was protection from something else. Maybe that “failure”
was really giving you more time to look within yourself and dig deeper into being who you
really are.
It is more honorable to have a museum of failures than a museum of regrets. Even when things
don’t work out, you did more than most people by even trying. It is up to you to get back up, to
keep fighting, and to find what truly fulfills you.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or
where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is
actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly;
who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and
shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the
great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the
triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly,
so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor
defeat.” - Theodore Roosevelt
Clemson University provides so many unique ways to serve, to get involved, and to find
belonging. I speak from experience when I say, one thing not working out can lead you to the
highest mountains in life and take you places you could never have dreamed of. It is such a
blessing that I didn’t always get exactly what I wanted, because if I did, I would have sold
myself short.
Remember to keep your head held high, to keep fighting for what you believe in, and to always
stay true to yourself no matter what title you may or may not have.
Patrick H., Clemson University
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