“If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it.” -W.C. Fields

It was sometime during my freshman year of college that one of my friends mentioned to me that she had decided to stop eating meat. She started looking to me for tips on vegetarian-friendly restaurants and how to "feel full" from a non-meat meal. At the time, I didn't have many vegetarian friends and was thrilled at the prospect of company. The weeks went by and my friend became more and more weighed down by her new dietary restriction. I just feel tired all the time, she told me. My body just isn't getting all the nutrition it needs. It was then that I realized that despite our similar food preferences, I simply could not empathize. Having been vegetarian all my life, my body does not know what it feels like to be full from meat. You know, the whole "you don't know what you don't know" thing.

A few months ago, I got a call from one of my good friends who told me he was quitting his job. He didn't yet have a defined next step, but all he knew was that he was unhappy enough where he was that he needed to leave. He was rather emotional as he shared his decision with me. This is one of the hardest things I've ever had to to do he admitted.

Quitting is not always the easy way out. In some cases, take an extreme example like smoking, it's actually quite difficult to do.

I've never really officially quit anything. Growing up, I just wasn't allowed to quit. When I got annoyed with having to practice piano or dance, for example, I was required to persist. I ended up a decent musician and dancer and I am so grateful that my parents pushed me through. But here's the thing: What I didn't realize when I was younger was that my parents saw some promise. They truly believed I could be good and it was for that reason that I wasn't allowed to quit. Unfortunately, I incorrectly interpreted the reasoning behind their "anti-quit" mindset, and grew to believe that quitting is just always bad.

Last Tuesday as I watched LeBron play his series-winning game, I realized how much I respect the guy. Yeah, his performance was deserving of the title, but more noteworthy was his sheer resilience and persistence to do what he set out to do despite widespread criticism. And the ability to recognize the necessity to quit a team, city, and fans to join another to get where he felt he deserved to be? Kind of admirable.

I started learning French in the sixth grade and it quickly became one of my favorite classes. It was a new and different change from the same old subjects (math, science, English, history) that I had taken over and over since kindergarten. I also found it somewhat exhilarating to be learning a new language. I continued taking French classes through my senior year of high school, though I had completed my foreign language requirement by the tenth grade. By the end of high school, I could fluently read, write, and converse in French, though I had spent most eleventh and twelfth grades complaining about my boring French classes.

When I started college, due to no more than a self-imposed requirement, I signed up for a French Grammar and Composition class. It turned out that the class was easier than the AP French course I had taken three years prior. I consistently received high marks in the course but almost never found myself intellectually stimulated. The summer after my sophomore year of college, I studied abroad in France and learned more about the French language and culture than I ever had before.

Looking back, my return from France would have been the perfect opportunity to start learning a new language or allocate some course units to a different subject matter altogether. Instead of taking the cue I had mastered a language or that I was ready to explore something new and exciting, I convinced myself "not to quit learning French."

Thanks to the black and white moral code of our childhood, we've all at some point been taught that quitting is for losers. That quitting will make us lesser people and that others will think lesser of us. Of course, the stigma is not unfounded given that some level of persistence is mandatory in order to become a pro or expert or achieve whatever your goal may be.

We are never taught, however, that sometimes, quitting is the right thing to do. And in some cases, quitting is actually more difficult than not. We are never taught that it is okay to acknowledge that you are not cut out for a certain sport or career path and that perhaps your talents would be better suited for something else. We are never taught how to identify that you have drank to the lees and that it is time for a new experience.

I occasionally fear that an anti-quit mindset will prevent me from pursuing enriching new experiences and opportunities in various aspects of my life. That stale comfort will go unquestioned. In some senses, I know this mindset is driven by a fear of leaving things behind. Of missing what was. But the truth (and something that I am still trying to accept myself) is that once you get to a certain point in life, you are no longer "quitting things" but making yourself into a well-rounded individual with diverse experiences and expertise. Each of those things you quit is really just a building block of your existence. Everything that defines you.

So yes, be persistent. Tell yourself you won't quit at it, whatever it is, if it's the last thing you do. But the second the passion, learning, thrill, excitement, or sense of purpose quit standing by your side, you owe it to yourself to go out in search of a new adventure. Because honestly, the second you quit quitting or even thinking about quitting, you've probably quit trying.