During the book seminar my peers and I had the opportunity to discuss the way in which society defines success and implicitly ascribes happiness as its appropriate emotion. An example that was brought up numerous times was one in which a friend had posted that she’d received a promotion at her job. She was instantly flooded with celebratory responses congratulating her. At first glance, this seemed normal , if not necessary, as public validation of achievement ,for some self-doubters, can be healthy and  uplifting. And, even aspire them to reach new levels of success. It was only after hearing the young lady’s answer to a question that was asked, did I realize how these responses can be limiting and the exact opposite of motivating. The question was ,“How do you feel about the promotion?”. One thing to note was how the open-endedness and simplicity of this question had made it a better response than any. The questions allowed the lady to express her true feelings regarding what seemed to be a big step in her life. And surprisingly, she wasn’t all that thrilled about the promotion after all, seeing as it had been something she wasn’t interested in. A major takeaway from this was to acknowledge that by implicitly dictating how others should feel about events within their lives, can make them forego their own better judgement and settle. Even more unfortunate, make these individuals settle for a position in life that they themselves will have to see through, and not those imposing the emotions. All in all, I’m most thankful for engaging in such a discussion because it helped me to have faith in the truth of my feelings regardless of the situation.