BY: CLAIRE KIM
Often times as an individual, we want to better ourselves and show our greatest potential. Whether it’s in academics or extracurriculars or hobbies, we all have something we want to make the best out of. Although this mentality is great and strives us to push beyond our limits it can unintentionally lead us to find greed in being good at everything. It’s fine to work hard and desire to be really good at something but, you have to make sure you’re doing this for yourself and not for anyone else. Commonly, I come across many teenagers who push themselves to do so many things and be the first place in every talent opportunity just because they want to gain the spotlight and show that they are better than everyone else. This greed for attention and praise is what causes many to burn out while committing to this plan and it never works out. While you work for success, you shouldn’t be thinking about what others are doing and building a tactic that can allow you to “win” against them. When having a goal in mind, it’s such a waste of time to compare yourself to others and look at other’s achievements as a threat which will add up as stress in the end. Peer pressure is hard to overcome and it’s always going to be present in your life, but the only way to block it is if you just forget about it and focus on your goal. One of the key ways to find joy in your goal is to create passion in what you do and do your best. It’s useless to bring competition into everything because competing with yourself is way more important and already hard enough. Learning skills and building confidence are much more valuable than any #1 medal you receive because they will actually help you to achieve more in the future and feel self-satisfaction. Don’t let anyone get in the way of your path to success because, in the end, no one is going to care if you did this or that, all it matters is if you are happy and can say “I worked hard”.
claire kim. 