How is success defined? For a student at St. Paul Academy and Summit School, what does this really mean? How is success measured? It is easy to think of success as a simple concept that highlights things like superb test scores, athletic prowess, exceptional grades, accolades in areas of debate, music, and journalism. But everyone has their own definition of the word success. As individuals and high school students, we come together as a community where students pursue different paths in the hope of find success that will lead to more success after high school. At SPA, prevailing opinion holds that graded success matters more than personal success. With the pressures students have to achieve top notch grades in order to be admitted into the top colleges, the definition of success gets very narrow.

The seasonal SPA awards ceremony acknowledges student success by some pre-determined set of criteria. Is there an award for a student who is “successfully” average? One would like to think that every student at SPA can identify with success by virtue of his or her ability to determine and define it. To take a different approach, maybe one’s ability to cope with failure provides a person with the tools needed to achieve bigger and better goals. While it takes a great person to succeed, it takes a greater person to deal with failure. Failure is a part of life. Even though it is painful to fail, we grow in character, and we grow as stronger human beings when we don’t succeed. Sometimes failing causes us to quit or give up. We decide that success is unattainable in a particular endeavor. That is not necessarily a bad thing. It is a dose of reality to understand that not everyone gets A’s, not everyone makes the team, and not everyone gets a solo. On the other hand, failing sometimes helps us work harder for our successes. It forces us to reflect on a situation and set new goals that may lead to future success.Regardless of how one sees it, success is relative. Throughout the high school journey, there should be an awareness of how rare a place like SPA truly is: a community with teachers, administrators, and student have the desire to support students both in their success and in their failures.