As we read "This is Water" in class this week, one line from Wallace particularly stuck out to me.
"Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out."
This is going to be a stereotypical asian blog post, but I realized that this powerful quote really applied to me (mostly the intelligence part). Junior year: the hellish year full of standardized test, APs, etc.( a stereotype that proves to be true). There isn't a day where I don't hear people around me saying "What did you get on that test?...I can't believe she aced it!...How did you do?...I'm so dumb compared to her!...At least she got a lower grade than me!" There goes the never ending cycle of comparing and using someone else's score as an excuse to make yourself feel better. This cycle leads to one thinking, "Why can't I be as smart as *so and so*...Why can't I be as athletic as *so and so*?" I'm not going to lie, I do this too. But, it needs to stop.
The more we focus solely on one thing, the more we'll lose. The smarter you want to be, the dumber you will feel. The richer you want to be; no amount of material goods will ever satisfy you. The more power you crave, the more vulnerable you will feel.
The moral of this? I just feel like we need to learn to be grateful for what we are and stop trying to be someone that we're not. We don't need to be as smart as other people to fulfill our lives; we don't need to prove ourselves to other people in order to feel powerful.
My motto that I presented this week was "You are as invincible as you believe yourself to be." In other words, YOU are the limit of yourself, not other people!! You can be as smart, powerful, content, or rich as you want to be, but be happy with your own limits. Don't let other people define what your limits are. Define for yourself what you consider to be smart. It could literally be intelligent, or it could mean being able to put 100% effort into something and know you tried as hard as you could. Being powerful could mean being able to control, or being able to overcome your fears. Being rich could mean having loads of money, or being rich in your heart; in other words, being able to give back to someone who could never repay you.
As the great Dr. Seuss said, "Today you are You, that is truer than true, there is no one alive who is Youer than You."
I also related to this quote, I think like a lot of kids in AP classes I identify greatly with being 'smart'. This often leads to feeling the exact opposite, yet you can't tell anyone when you did less than spectacular because you'll be 'found out'. Once again you say exactly how I feel but in a waaaay more articulate fashion. Love you.
ReplyDeleteThat line really stood out to me too! It's interesting how paradoxical it is. It's true though, that if someone keeps wishing for more and more of something, he will feel that he has less of it. Nice post :)
ReplyDeleteThis is so inspiring! I definitely feel like we are all feeling intense pressure! AP classes and even regular high school classes will do that to a person. We need to focus on the positives and just work on the negatives. Without trying to be absolutely perfect!
ReplyDeleteDang, I really liked this post Tiff! I completely agree, obsession can become our demise. If we focus all our attention on something we lose it in other important areas of our lives. Great Post!
ReplyDeleteThe world has revolved around other people. Yes, I believe we cannot succeed without other people, but we put too much emphasis on how others fare rather than how we fare (no comparison whatsoever). Like Booker T Washington once said, "Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome."
ReplyDeleteSometimes it is so easy to get caught up in the negatives and weaknesses in our lives that we forget about all of the positives and strengths we have, as well. We need to take a step back and appreciate what we were given and use that to the best of our ability.
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