Success Is In the Eye of the Beholder by Linda

Success Is In the Eye of the Beholder by Linda - September 2014 Scholarship Essay

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and when it comes to success, there are so many different ideas to what true success is. Some people may think that it is defined by getting a high-paying job such as a lawyer or a doctor while other people may think of themselves as successful by pursuing their dreams, no matter how much their salary is. Whichever way a person may pursue success, I feel an effective way to achieve your own success is through the ability to accept constructive criticism and use it to learn, grow, and thrive.

In my high school experience, I have learned that constructive criticism is the best way to learn how to improve in anything you are doing. One way that I have learned this is through the service that I have done on my youth worship team at my church. When I began serving on my church’s worship team I was very nervous about singing alone on stage and I didn't have much confidence in my voice at all. As time progressed, the constructive criticism of my worship leader has allowed me to learn ways to strengthen and improve my singing and confidence by pushing me past my comfort zone. Now, singing alone in front of a group of people is much easier and less nerve-racking for me and I have become much more confident in my voice since the first time I performed. This is only one of the infinite cases where constructive criticism has proven to be successful.

Based on these experiences I have had in my life, this is why I believe that having the ability to accept and learn from constructive criticism is the most useful to becoming a successful student in college. When studying a major in college, I feel the only way that someone could develop the skills for that major would be to accept criticism and learn from their mistakes. For example, if a student studying to be a doctor refused to hear criticism when they performed a surgery as an assignment, then that doctor could make a mistake that could hurt a patient in the future and could even cause someone a life. Though this is an extreme case, with every college major there are consequences to people’s refusal to accept that they are making a mistake and refusal to try to do something to change that.

Even though there is a surplus of skills to be successful in college, I definitely feel that having the ability to improve your learning and performance skills through constructive criticism is one of the most useful skills to have not only in your college experience, but in life.