Today in my Political Science course, my professor said a statement that really, in my personal opinion, was thought provoking. He spoke of how, in order to be a renowned individual, it was not enough to top those who came before you, but rather you had to be the first to accomplish something. In other words, while landing on the moon is a major achievement for an astronaut, it will never be as renown as being the first to do so. So my question for all of you is do you agree or disagree with this statement?
Being a trailblazer is no easy task. It takes courage, commitment, and faith that your actions will benefit the greater good. Even if you are not sure of the end result, being a first means that you must preserve through your doubts and insecurities to accomplish anything. Think of the many social movements throughout history dealing with racial, gender, and sexuality. How did these movements start? With the steps of one or a few individuals who say and opportunity for social improvement and recognized the need for someone to give the movement some push against society’s inertia.
With that being said, is it fair to discredit those individuals who came after the initiator? What if those who follow do more to progress a movement than the individual who started it? Followers may follow under two circumstances: either 1) they are initially too afraid to join and only choose to do so after the terrain looks safer or 2) were unaware of the circumstances that began the movement and sought to participate immediately upon discovering the issue. While both categories are important to any progression, those who fall within the second may have the same amount of passion and motivation as the individual who started it all. Again, the only difference is that the follower lacked the same information as the initiator during the first realization of a problem or an opportunity.
Perhaps this follower wasn’t even around when the movement began. But say, perchance, this person ends up contributing more than any of those before him/her. Who is held with the highest renown then? Or, what if this person takes the previous work of another and moves it toward a different direction. How is credit distributed then? Personally, I don’t have any definite answer. It’s just a perplexing topic to think about.
Let’s take a tangible example from my own life. My first teacher, my kindergarten teacher, was absolutely perfect at her job. Not only was she beautiful enough for my 5-year-old self to consider her to be a real-life Barbie doll, but also she was patient, kind, loving, and fair to each and every one of her students. Because of her, I grew up with an optimistic view toward public school educators and their abilities to inspire youth. However, despite the fact that she was my first teacher, she was not my most influential and did not play this biggest role in shaping my perception of educators. In fact, this did not occur until I was in high school, where I worked closely with a teacher who went above and beyond her duties as an educator and became a mentor that encouraged me to better myself not only in the classroom, but also in most every other facet of my life. This perfectly demonstrates that, while the ‘first’ played an essential role in my education, it was one of my teachers that followed who touched my life the most.
Conversely, I have a friend who I would consider a trailblazer in his own right. Brave, intelligent, and ambitious, he certainly has set standards and forged new paths. Because of his initial steps to create change, I’ve been inspired to contribute myself and have, as a result, sought opportunities that I may not have considered without his influence in my life. In this case, having a friend such as him for the first time has prompted me to better myself and worked toward bettering an issue that I care strongly about.
Maybe the focus shouldn’t be who should receive the most recognition but rather who receives recognition at all. It’s an accumulation of many individuals throughout a period of time whom make the biggest difference, not just one person who gets the ball rolling. Regardless, I can’t help but reference a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson that I’ve thought about a lot lately: “To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and affection of children…to leave the world a better place, to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
To accomplish any degree of positive change in to succeed.
