Nietzsche and Me Anonymous

In his inspiring work of philosophical allegory, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche proposes the concept of the "Übermensch", or Superman, a human who is completely autonomous and self-directed. When I first stumbled across this concept during my late night summer reading, I realized how topical Nietzsche's abstraction was in the context of my own life. Originally, I interpreted his concept as the desire for a "perfect" human, one at the apex of their health - not just physically, but mentally and spiritually as well. What I later realized was that Nietzsche was not proposing an impossible ideal and saying, "Good luck trying to achieve this". Instead, he was putting forth a model for us to follow; a model of what we should strive to be. That was the core message that I found so inspiring in Thus Spoke Zarathustra - that we can live a life authentic to ourselves in the pursuit of self-improvement. Later that night when I resumed my reading, I learnt about Nietzsche's thoughts on the nature of struggle. The Superman, he proclaimed, succeeded in everything he did. "Well, isn't that just great," I thought. "How am I supposed to be successful in everything!?" My frustration was short-lived however - I quickly realized that...