Emotions and self: How do you react?

Emotion; everyone has it, whether they like to acknowledge it or not. Even an emotionless person has emotion. There will just always be something that has an effect on you. Your emotion can also be transferred to someone else as well. This process is called emotional contagion. An excerpt that I was reading form a book called Emotional Contagion by three university professors, two of which were from the university of Hawaii and one from the university of Ohio, talked about how emotions can be transferable. Many people don't pay attention to this, but after reading the excerpt, I realized that it was true. For example, One day, not too long ago, I was so happy because I had just received news that I was hired for a job. So in my glory, I'm telling everyone how much of a great thing this was until I came to a good friend of mine. After I told her about my GREAT news, I noticed that she was very sad. I asked her what was wrong and she told me her story. Before I could make it to the next person to tell them about my great news, I was sad and had no idea why. It made no sense to me then and although I'm still not exactly sure how it works, I know it does and trust me, I've learned my lesson.
If you haven't noticed, many people are biased to emotions. You may be reading this like, Ok what the heck is she talking about, but seriously, people really are biased to emotions. Come on, think about it, Which emotion is you favorite? Ok, now which emotion do you hate? Now let me guess the answers, your favorite was happiness or being surprised and your least favorite was anger or sadness. Anger and sadness display a feeling of negativity as to where as happiness and being surprised gives you a good positive feeling. The reason why we have become so biased to our emotions, which allows us to pick and choose which emotion to show, is due to society. Society's input dates back to centuries before us. It was expected for a woman to be happy and submissive, but for her to express anger and rage was unacceptable. In today's society, it is very rare for a man to cry and sometimes they are considered weak. Being emotional strikes as a negative word. My mother usually uses that phrase when I explain to her that she has hurt my feelings about something. "Oh stop, you're being emotional", "That's a dumb way to feel" and many other sayings are part of the reason why being "emotional" whether good or bad is so taboo.
Sometimes your emotions can get the best of you. One topic that always gets my blood boiling is that of racism, whether it's targeted to blacks, whites, homosexuals, or young people, it has always been a touchy topic for me. Recently I had to "check" my emotions so to speak. An email was sent on facebook containing racial comments targeting the Latin culture and also a group on campus. Previous to this, racial comments were left on a few doors in one of the dormitory halls regarding the African American culture. Whether I belonged to any of these groups or not I would feel angry, but the fact that I belong to all three makes it worse. I can honestly say that my emotions almost got the best of me. One thing that we are not taught is how to deal when we have many emotions racing at once. I definitely could have used that lesson then. I was angry, shocked, hurt, saddened and even confused. All the while not knowing how to deal with these emotions all at once, I just felt drained.
Emotion has an effect on our day to day lives, and its not as easy as turning the light switch on and off, your emotions never go away. You can try your hardest to hide them, but they'll seep out eventually, they always do. Laugh now Cry later is the perfect example of two emotions at the extreme.

Measuring Success

Success can be defined as so many things. Many people in our civilization today believe that success has to do with how much money you have, how many cars you own, what does your home look like and things of that nature. I on the other hand believe that success is what you make it. Success depends on your goal. If someone has set a goal to graduate college at the top of their class, own their own business, and have a family by the age of 24 and their goal is accomplished, then to me, they are successful. It's all about what it is that you are striving for.
In addition to making a goal and achieving the goal to become successful, I believe that there has to be a foundation first. The major foundation that determines everything besides you, is your family. Growing up their are many different things instilled in you. Although we as humans all have the wantingness to succeed, I think that there is different foundations and different values that makes a person want to go further.
The ultimate goal of success is to obtain happiness. If you don't have happiness upon completing your goal, then how can you deem yourself successful. The reason why people strive so much and work so hard is to be happy in the end. Everyone wants the big house and the flashy cars, but all off that without happiness is empty.
Success can be found in many instances and cases. When thinking about this assignment, I first thought of interviewing person who was working in the field that I am studying. At the last minute I changed my mind. I wanted to convey to everyone that success is what you make it and how happy you are in the end. I decided to interview a woman with five children, no degree, no car, she rents her own house and gets up everyday and goes to work early and stays late. This woman is my mother. Many people believe that people who live in the inner city are not successful, let alone a person who had their first child at 14 years old. I asked my mom did she think she was successful in her life now at the age of 42. She sat their for a while and smiled and said "yes I am successful. I may not have a fancy car and a big house nor a lot of money, but I have a wonderful family and I am happy." That is a direct quote from Mrs. Willette Baines. As the interview continued she told me how this not how she planned her life but her main goal is to raise her children right, keep a roof over their heads and at the end of the night, be content and happy with her life.
Sometimes it costs a lot to be successful. Things may not always go as planned and sometimes you have to loose somethings or even some people to become successful in whatever it is that you want to do. When you want to be successful in a career, sometimes it may feel as if you have to give up your life to get to where you want to be, but success is achieving your goal and ultimately obtaining happiness.
I definitely think that success is contagious. I think its just a psychological thing. When you are around a person who strives extra hard to be successful by achieving their goal it make you want to go further and also achieve a goal that you have. Success is like a contagious cold that everyone wants to catch. Everyone wants to succeed, it just that sometimes people just don't know how. Achieving a goal no matter how small (rock climbing) or how big (becoming the CEO of a company) is my definition of success...what is yours?