“I just want people to know… that I’m a person. I’m a person worth loving, worth knowing, and worth being here. And I’m that way fat or thin.”
Alright, I’ll admit that this is from a show on the Health Channel called, creatively, Super Obese. I’ll also admit that I didn’t really entirely enjoy the show, but rather just this one line. It made me tear up a bit; it’s so true. It’s quite easy for people to judge you by your outward appearance, or less obviously, actions and habits.
It is in the case of the latter, where I speak of not physical obesity, but a new mental epidemic. The word new is used lightly, as I’m sure our parents had problems, and their parents these troubles, etc, ad nauseum. This problem is new to me, and perhaps new to us. Everyone seems to be on a constant quest for perfection. The recent college preparation course we all took did nothing to help.
Not only do you have to have superior grades, be knowledge about everything, and maintain a mastery over several instruments, you must not let anyone know about it, or risk loosing rank in society! Ideally, you should be able to speak several languages fluently and clearly and maintain the ability to switch on a whim. While extra-curricular courses and clubs aren’t required, not having them is heavily frowned upon. If you do have these, you’re awesome, but do not let them interfere with your academics. Don’t you dare think about taking a non-weighted course that would damage your rank for trivial and non-essential purpose of enjoyment. Oh, and you have to look amazingly beautiful and be a slut at the same time. But make sure you don’t end up with pregnancy or an STD, because then you couldn’t be in Marching Band.
Stop it! These ridiculous requirements are driving me up a wall without me even realizing it! If Lily hadn’t suggested these to me last night, I’d probably still be trying to compete with those who are clearly more dedicated to not enjoying life than I am. Are you willing to sacrifice a music class to increase your rank? Are you willing to drop an art class in favor of advanced math hoping some pretty graphs and tables will make up what your inner-child has lost? Why is learning such a competition? People must stop enforcing such mental obesity on us! It’s killing me.
The last line makes me out to be a hypocrite. I have very huge ambition to go to a college with a very tight and rigorous entrance procedure. It makes sense that I would be doing all of the above to get into my future, but I don’t want to! I don’t want to forgo taking something I enjoy here and now to compete. I don’t want to have to be mentally obese to be accepted. I just want people to accept me as a person who loves and wants to be loved, whether or not I am as smart as everyone in everything.