The power of quitting is strong

Someone once said, “You’re defined by how you handle stress in the face of adversity.”   I’m not going to waste my time trying to attribute the phrase because that “someone” is more than likely dead and his copyright has probably expired with him.

But I’ve noticed that people will throw banal quotes like that around hoping to inspire others to achieve success.

I think that’s good, but the problem I see is that we’ll only read the sentence one way; “no matter how much pressure you’re under, you are not allowed to quit.”  That’s a positive thought for some people, but that’s not viewpoint I’ve been searching for.

I woke up a couple of weeks ago to find that my car had been stolen.  It was deadline day for The Eagle, I had news stories to finish reporting on, an upcoming Army reserve duty in Casper, Wyo. (which I couldn’t make it to without a car), and a whole host of other problems weighing on my mind. I was well beyond my limits and I wasn’t able to focus.

So how did I handle the stress in the face of such adversity? I chain smoked, finished my work and spent the rest of the night awake and worrying about my future. The next day, I made a decision: I walked in to The Eagle and resigned as the news editor. I gave up; I quit.

A cliché we’re taught growing up is that winners never quit. If you follow that logic, I’m your textbook loser; but look that word up in the dictionary and my picture won’t be beside it. That logic doesn’t apply to me because I’m not a binary definition; I’m a pleasant ambiguity known as a human being.

We are conditioned by society to believe that if we quit we are somehow defeated. Winning makes you a success, while losing means you’re a failure. Because of this fundamentally flawed value system, we are supposed to be ashamed when we quit something.

Believe me; I feel no shame.

In fact, I’m extremely proud of the fact that I quit.  Of course, there were consequences for my actions. I now owe the Department of Veterans Affairs money for the class I had to drop when I resigned from the Eagle staff.

But I’ve come to realize that a degree doesn’t illustrate how smart you are and I’ll happily pay Caesar what belongs to Caesar.  My happiness is worth more to me than acquiring pieces of paper with arbitrary and imaginary value.

But I’m mostly proud of what I’ve lost (stress) and what I’ve gained (peace of mind).  I’m proud because I quit on my own terms. I gave up my desire to be seen as successful and I found the freedom to pursue something more satisfying and important than reporting on student government.

To all the winners who are stuck chasing accomplishments and manipulating people to acquire success; I wish you only the best of luck, and I hope you grab a taste of that “Big W.”

Honestly, that game is not for me. You learn the best lessons from failure, not achievement.

I came to college to learn something, so I might as well intend my mistakes.