Peer Pressure

 Hey readers, I am back again.

Today I will talk about something, which almost everyone had suffered at some point in their life. We often compare ourselves with people performing better or worse than us and feel sad and happy. Today I will walk you through my journey and tell you about the ups and downs that came into my life.

In my primary school, I was amongst the bright students, but one thing for which I got scolded was my handwriting. My father used to teach in same school, so his colleagues often used to look for complaints about me to tease him. Till class 5, I had only one competitor.

Then I moved to a boarding school and unlike my previous school it was English Medium. This was the first time, I felt a little pressure on myself. There were all bright students from different places, who knew better English than me. I missed my home a lot, and used to hide my tears from all, under the blanket. When my parents used to visit me, I always get emotional and plead them to take me out of the boarding school. But somehow they convinced me to stay there. In my first exam I just got passing marks in maths and some average marks in other subjects. Slowly improving in second exams I got 49/50 in english, it was quite surprising and motivating too.

Slowly from below average I came in the lists of average students. I used to feel a kind of gap between me and people who have studied from english medium schools. But slowly that inferiority complex also vanished as I started understanding things quite clearly and active engagement in class helped a lot. I started scoring good marks but still I was not amongst the butter and cream of class.

When I was in class 8, my father came to attend our annual function. Students were getting prizes but I didn't got any. My father told me that he was waiting for my turn to come, but it didn't came. That thing got stuck in my mind. You always imagine yourself as the main character of your story but when you see the reality, it is not the same.

Apart from academics I had another thing holding me back, that was Stage fear. I always used to look for opportunities so that I can vanish this too. Sometimes I just messed up, but sometimes I did really well.

My school had a policy of migration for cultural exchange for class 9 students. So, I thought just grab the opportunity and see what the other JNV looks like. The people were highly competitive. I made new friends. I started paying more attention to classes. The teachers were really encouraging, specially the math teacher. I improved myself, and learned things from new people. After finals exams I got 3rd rank in class. This was the first time, I achieved something big. When I came back to to my school, I didn't like the environment. To be honest, the other JNV was more systematic and well managed. 

I was in class 10. I felt that my productivity has increased and my potential is channelized. Maybe that is why, people say that travelling sometimes is good for you. Everything changed, I was always on top in almost every exam. I was weak in social sciences, and the teacher always used to hurt my ego. I think it was his way to keep me work on my weaknesses. It was only him, who used to remind me that you are not perfect and you need to work constantly. 

But maybe due to overconfidence I did not top my 10th board exams, and got 3rd position. It was disheartening because the student who tops the exam, gets the chance to be school captain. Then I became the academic captain and my job was nothing apart from maintaining registers.

In class 11 and 12 the experiences were quite same. I did not felt much pressure because I was already good at studies and was the butter and cream of class. By the way I was the topper in class 12 board exams in my class. I did not felt much happier. My parents were really happy for me, specially my father. He went on to reporters and they published my story on newspaper.