A good friend of mine once told me while I was going through a stressful time to look at life as a marathon rather than a race. I am not too sure if I extracted the intended meaning, but I did take a few important lessons. Your goal in life shouldn’t be to beat everyone else; rather, you should focus on yourself and accomplish your own goals. When you run a marathon, you are thrown into a crowd with hundreds of other people, and there will always be someone in that crowd that is bound to be better than you. Your only goal is to make it to the finish line faster than you did last time. Comparing yourself to everyone else only distracts you from the finish line ahead. Marathons are long, personal fights of persistence, and a small loss is not going to be the end of your battle. Sometimes, you have to slow down and save your energy for a different part of your journey, but as long as you keep on going, you will be fine. Always remember that you will be fine.
High school life has only gotten more competitive over the years. Every personal achievement can be broadcasted to the world through social media. With the rising competitiveness of college admissions, high school students have been pushing themselves even further—not towards achieving a personal goal, but to beating out everyone else. We should all take some time every once in a while to look around and find a way to help someone else prosper without fearing their success. In high school, it is possible to find something that you are the best at, but when you enter the world beyond LM, you will see that there is always someone better than you. You cannot let other’s success distract you from accomplishing your goals. When I was younger, I imagined myself playing the piano pieces well beyond my ability. I noticed quickly that I did not have the innate talent that some of my peers and family had. No matter how many tears I shed telling myself I could never be as good as them, I kept on fighting. I maynot be as skillful as them today, but I made substantial progress that would shock my younger self, if he could see me now. Keep on working hard on your dreams, and do not let comparisons bring you down
