The world does not want you to succeed. It is a series of mechanisms designed to push you, pull you, break you and then when you think you have endured it all, it will crush you. When the world beckons with a challenge, you have to answer it because you are but a puppet with your head bowed to the master.

Think about a goal you have had in your life. Maybe it was to become an astronaut or even just to get good grades in school. Each goal consisted of step after exhausting step: homework then studying then exams then report cards. Everything worth having in life consists of steps designed to make you quit or fail.

Higher education is just another one of those steps put into place to test your will. Why did you choose Xavier? It was because you knew that in order to be successful you needed to have a college degree, and Xavier could ensure that you would reach that next step: the job market.

The secret of the world is that there is no end to these steps. Life is always going to push you in the directions of a next step. Once you get to your job, you are going to want a raise, and then maybe a new position, but you are always going to want something more.

You can fight and kick and scream, but the fact is that there will never be a moment in your life where you succeed. There will be moments where you feel so intensely happy and accomplished, yet that is not success. To say you have succeeded is to admit that you have given up, no longer willing to take the next step.

The world does not want you to succeed because that would mean that you accept that you can no longer grow. Success is the equivalent of settling and accepting that you have nothing left to give or attain. Failures and wins, steps and setbacks are all processes in which we can measure growth in all facets of our life.

If we want to continue to grow as both individuals and as a society, we must be able to understand that the world works against us. Yes, there will be a point where you cry and scream in frustration and rage that the world is out to get you. That is because it is. Life is unfair. But, it will also be that moment where you are given a choice. You can either make the decision to succumb to the waves of injustice and float away, or you can get up and put on your big kid shoes– or hell, walk barefoot—into the world with your tear-soaked face.

In that moment, you can either choose growth or you can take the easy way out by letting the world win and claiming your “success.” In that moment, you choose to define yourself by your actions. In that moment, you choose to become a stronger person.

So, find your moment. Look the world in the eye and laugh because you know something they don’t. You know that they aren’t real. All the challenges you have faced, all the struggles and injustice and pain have given you the opportunity to see the truth. Relish this feeling.

No longer are you on autopilot blindly succumbing to the predetermined steps of the world, but now you have the power to decide for yourself where to place your feet, what direction to go in or how many floors you want to go up. All you have to do is take the next step.