There was a time when Sarah had a huge circle of friends who would support her at all times and share good and bad times with her. Everyone at school liked her and even though she was not a high achiever, when it came to grades this did not matter to her. The people she bonded with were far more important to her than grades. She was very happy.

With time, however, things started to change, they were now in higher classes and grades were gaining extreme importance to all of them. The competition between students was becoming quite tough and Sarah told herself that since her entire future depended on her grades, perhaps grades were the most important thing to focus on now.

So she decided to abandon everything and everyone in order to fully concentrate on her studies. Her only desire now was to become a high achiever and in her opinion this was possible only when she left everyone else behind her so that no one should do better than her.

As a result, her attitude took a dramatic shift. She began to stay away from her friends and classmates as she was afraid they might copy her studying strategies and waste her time and was often rude to them. She would envy anyone who did better than her and soon became the victim of a terrible thing called ‘comparison’. The more she would compare her progress to that of others, the worse she would feel. At last she decided that the only way to achieve her goal was by completely cutting off connections with everyone she knew and giving all her time and energy to studies.

So she decided to abandon everything and everyone in order to fully concentrate on her studies. Her only desire now was to become a high achiever and in her opinion this was possible only when she left everyone else behind her so that no one should do better than her.

Not surprisingly, her grades started to improve and in the examinations, she was overjoyed to be declared the highest achiever in her school with a number of awards to her credit. She experienced a feeling of immense satisfaction and triumph. However, when these temporary feelings had subsided, Sarah realised that no one had come to congratulate her, not even her own friends. She felt rather bitter and concluded they were jealous of her. She convinced herself that she did not need them anymore and hence should leave them. And anyways, her studies were what mattered the most to her.

If Sarah thought she had everything sorted out, she was wrong. Everywhere she went, people pretended she did not exist. Her friends became strangers to her. She had no one to turn to in times of need. In recess, she would be all alone with her books. In group projects, no one wanted her to be with them.

Sarah became a name that existed only in the high achiever’s list, not in anyone’s heart and mind. This girl now started to feel terribly lonely and alienated, but her ego took the better of her. With time her grades began to decline too and of course, everyone noticed this with surprise. They also noticed that this girl always wore a look of longing and emptiness on her face but no one would approach her.

One day during recess, one of her friends found Sarah alone in a corner with her head in her hands and her eyes sore — a picture of misery. This kind girl could not take it and decided to offer her friend solace and company and tell her what had actually gone wrong.

Within a matter of few days, Sarah got back her friends and everyone else was pleased to have the good, old Sarah back. Her grades began to improve too, but this time not because of her selfishness and ego but because of her big heart. Sarah would help anyone facing difficulty in studies and lend her notes to them. She began to feel her knowledge and joys multiply and this was a feeling she had never experienced before.

Published in Dawn, Young World July 1st, 2017