Heights By Great Men (and Women)...

The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 I recall as a little girl attending primary school, we had to get up every morning in class to repeat the verse quoted above by H. W. Longfellow. It was so annoying to perform this mundane task that we started to sound like a set of zombified (<- Yes, it's an actual word) robots in a chorus when we were asked to repeat it.
Recently, however, the quote came to mind when I was up studying in the wee hours of the morning. I sat and thought about what it meant and how it applies to what I was doing. My "height" has no definable boundary and so my aims get higher and higher with each passing day, and this quote serves as additonal motivation to do so.
During my first undergrad, I had a professor who thought it was okay to insult my efforts in writing. Since I'm a dramatic person, I never settle for mundane details. She   approached me to tell me that my paper needed "some more work," even though she could hardly find anything to correct. I made so many visits and adjustments to that paper and she eventually gave me a C- for the class, as I just could not please her. Discouraging, right?
Well, I thought about it and continued to work on my writing. I wrote short stories, poems and other articles that have even been published in the newspaper. I never stopped trying. Eventually, I acquired this platform and have been utilizing the same skills she said I was "failing miserably" at. The point is, I never stop. I work consistently and only do so to make improvements to myself and my abilities.
I still have not reached my "height" yet. Actually, I think I'm just beginning to climb.
Each day, we are presented with circumstances that distract us from our desired path, but like the great men H. S. Longfellow was referring, the only way to attain our desired outcomes is to keep at it.
Repetition is good. I believe I carried that quote with me subconsciously through school, through work, through life. I can never settle for less than what is great! I always want something to be as best as I can possibly make it. So if it requires spending some extra hours working on that super difficult assignment, or getting up extra early to volunteer some time, I believe it is worth it. It helps to put my goals in perspective and makes them much easier to attain.
 

Jodi-Ann is an Environmental Studies major in Nova Scotia, Canada.

** I do not own these photos, they were acquired from an external source.