I completely agree with the idea that Ingrid is putting forward, that our society promotes material success over everything else. I think this i a combination of many factors, including the structure of certain schools and particular family values. While we should not undervalue the importance of a great job, we must realize that income is not solely the determinant of a job’s worth. At the same time, I think that our society does us a disservice by not allowing us to truly live in the moment. When I was in grade school, I was preparing for high school and then I was preparing for college. I think this mentality is harmful. When we are always gearing up for the next phase of our lives, we cannot fully take advantage of all of the resources available to us at the present. If we only have an eye out for our future, we will most likely not seek a new academic endeavor or join an intriguing club that perhaps do not directly pertain to our career goals. In fact, I firmly believe that if we do seek out many of these new endeavors, we will actually provide ourselves with a greater chance of success. With the ever-rising amount of cogs in the educational machine, we owe it to ourselves to start thinking and acting outside the box. If we expand our own horizons and truly focus on our academic and spiritual enrichments, we will become even better candidates for our dream jobs. We must savor the transformative years of our lives to maximize our happiness and reconfigure the societal construction of success.