Competition
By Joanna, age 20, South Wales, United Kingdom
Sweet Designs Featured Writer
Whilst everyone is worrying about exams and what this can mean for future prospects and where we'll all end up in ten years' time, everyone seems to want to be 'doing a harder subject' or 'having more exams' than one another - but why? Living up to parents' expectations can be hard, and achieving the standards you personally set for yourself is a challenge, but how can anyone claim to be under more stress than any other individual when we are all faced with the same doom and ordeal that exams bring?
I started thinking this over after my housemate made a comment that her sister had done a degree that 'wasn't as hard as hers', and it got me pondering over the nature of even saying such a thing is difficult or easy. These are just labels we attribute to things, but surely they hold different meanings to everyone? Surely it's unfair to say anything is harder or easier than anything else.
This whole competition idea of being 'worse off' spreads further than just exams. The more I think about it, the more examples I think of - life tragedies where one person has suffered an illness or tragedy, and someone else jumps in with their own personal story of grief and being worse off. This happens all the time, but it's so unnecessary. Human nature is a very curious thing indeed when we like to dwell upon life's shortcomings instead of revel in the many wonderful things and times that could surround us.
