The High Holiday season is upon us as the Jewish community embarks on the year 5785. Weeks following Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, I still find myself reflecting on the choices I made throughout the past year. I rejoice and celebrate the work and accomplishments I’ve been able to achieve while still understanding the depth of the harm I’ve inflicted on myself and others. Life moves fast, and what’s great about the High Holidays is that it’s a pause from the real world and a unique experience given to the Jewish people to stop, look around, and do some soul-searching. 

This year, my big philosophical crisis was always being right, even really right.

When you break it down, it’s a silly question. How can anyone be right all the time? That’s delusional. This question has engulfed me throughout the past few weeks. Having to be right has always been a bad tendency of mine. Some may call it narcissism. Now, don’t get me wrong, you should be confident and bold enough to believe in yourself, but the inability to admit when you're wrong is when chaos ensues. Knowledge is power, but one can’t grow without the humility to say, “I’m wrong and need help.” I’m learning that my failures are what made me who I am, not my success. The power of being susceptible to failure and growing from the lack of success is so much more powerful than always believing you are right. Ultimately, no, I’ve concluded it’s never right to always believe you are right. I love how the high holidays allowed me and so many others to self-reflect and make a change for the better.