Digital publication | Page 22

For me, there is a world of difference, with the first giving the recipient a way to opt out of an actual number, but the second makes it harder to avoid. This usually makes it awkward when I receive a low 90 or anything I'm not proud of. Should I lie a little, or tell the truth even if it’s not up to their standard, or mine? Did I not try as hard as they did? If my grades were mine and mine alone, I can't say that I would be as stressed as I am when  I am taking a test.

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We are affected by other people's perceptions of us. We seem to be condensing ourselves into a certain trait, branding people as "the smart kids in class". Of course, there is truth to this simple nickname, but it can feel disconcerting, especially when  people  find themselves not feeling so smart. 

  

This takes me back to five months ago to my 7th  grade  Spanish class. Learning new languages is something I want to do, so I was studying harder than most of my classmates. We would often play Kahoots or Quizizz on the vocabulary. Finding me in the leaderboard frequently, my classmates deemed that I was the smartest at Spanish. But this was not something  I believed  to be true. 

  

Soon, the "games" became more and more stressful. I found myself caught up in the competitive side, feeling the urge to live up to everyone's expectations. By hearing my classmates chatter about how I was too good at Kahoot and needed to let them win, the impulse to be the smartest overtook the fun of it.  My teacher  also hosted Kahoot games unrelated to Spanish, but I still pushed myself to fill the role of "the smart kid". I quickly found myself dreading the stressful games and  had to force myself to relax.  

  

Of course, whether you win or lose a Kahoot doesn’t matter in the long  term. But even though this was around 5 months ago, I vividly remember the stress and anger I felt when classmates joked about me losing. They had put this expectation on  me but  were surprised when I couldn’t live up to it. No one  would remember a day later, so why was I trying so hard?  

  

As social creatures, people  want to look good. Once I found myself drawn into people's purview, I felt like I was obligated to impress them. Especially with strangers or friends, we feel like we need to present a certain image of ourselves that people are attracted to.

But really, I didn't owe any of them anything. By keeping it simple, like the "smart kid", "the funny one", we label ourselves  and box ourselves into one image, therefore limiting what we can be or what we can achieve.