How do we measure success in this country? Are you only considered successful if you have a high-paying, high-powered job? I’ve been talking with friends and co-workers about what success means since the recent Washington Post article about Cedric Jennings and what’s going on in his life 12 years after A Hope in the Unseen was first published. Hope–this year’s One Maryland One Book selection–chronicles Jenning’s journey from his high school in one of D.C.’s most dangerous neighborhoods to Brown University.

After we leave high school and go our separate ways, the places we end up professionally run the gamut. Some of us fulfill our childhood dreams and become firemen, lawyers, and fishermen. Others hop from job to job or decide to move in a completely different direction professionally after years of doing the same thing—finding themselves professionally as they come into their own personally. But the bottom line is that we each have our own path to walk, and who is to say what defines success for each of us?

So what do you think? Do we only equate success with the Bigs? Big house, big car, big bank account? Do we place enough value on the contribution one makes in enriching the lives of others through their work? How do you define personal success?

Andrea Lewis is the Project Manager for One Maryland One Book.