Success has always been, and will always be nothing more than perspective. How we define success is how we've learned to measure ourselves. As a little girl, I used to dream about all of the things I would grow up to be. A doctor, a paleontologist, a painter; but then I grew up and realized I never became any of them. Does that mean I haven't succeeded? In the eyes of that little girl, maybe. Because she defined success as profession; your job became your identity. And the patients you cured, dinosaurs you discovered, paintings you sold, were the monuments you'd leave behind. But success is a thing of evolution; it is constant in change and in growth. And just as it evolves, so do our definitions. I never became a doctor, a paleontologist or a painter, but I didn't want to be. Because when I finally grew up, my dreams had changed and evolved into something greater.

The first time I held my son, I realized my true definition of success. Nothing I'd ever done, nor will ever do, could exceed becoming a mother. I had given life beyond my own; and with him, the possibility to give himself. And I knew at that moment, that even if I never did anything right in this world again, it would be okay; because I had him, and that means I've already succeeded. And in my success, the possibility for success was born. Maya Angelou once said, "If I have a monument in this world, it is my son." She knew the true definition of success. She knew, that long after she became a memory, her son and his children would continue to live and succeed.

It is with great pride that I can say, long after the things I've done and said are laid to rest, my son, my monument, will continue to succeed and have successors. His existence is my greatest succession, but his successes are my greatest memorial. I still don't know what I want to be, but at least I know I've already made it.

Learn more about this author, Kendall Spencer.
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