What I Really Learned in High School

The true meaning of friendship.

After getting back Chemistry tests, on which I had scored higher than my friend, she exclaimed "What? You're not allowed to do better than me!"

To which my teacher, from across the room, said "Ladies and gentlemen, the true meaning of friendship."

And I suppose that in some way that's true.

We offer to help our friends study. We ask our friends for help studying. Friends support each other.

But we hate it when they do better than us.

Do I sound petty right now? I feel petty. But I defy you to find someone who's never done worse on a test or project or homework or something and not been jealous. It's just not possible.

We do it with close friends, not-so-close friends, and even just other random people in our class. 9 out of 10 times, the first thing anyone says after they get a test back is "What did you get?" Why? Because we seek some form of validation by comparison. "Oh, well, at least I'm smarter than you." Everyone gets so excited for doing better than your friends. And why shouldn't we? A little competition never hurt anyone.

Until we get to the major leagues, where suddenly, people start a very nasty, mean, habit:

Sabotage.

Don't sabotage your friends guys. It's not worth it. Study hard, and if they do better than you, oh well. You can beat them at another test or another class or something. Don't worry. AND DON'T SABOTAGE. You know you've stooped to a new low when you feel the need to sabotage others just because you think that you're worthless because they got 4% higher than you on a stupid math test. Just kick their butt at science and be done with it, jeesh.