Self standards. You, me, and just about everyone in the world have their own self standards. Although they change from person to person, standards are measured differently. For some, doing a simple task already holds them to their self-standards while for others, they cannot be reached until getting into a prestigious school such as Harvard. But that’s okay. Or is it?
Students around the world feel pressured to do well in school by a numerous amount of factors: peers, PARENTS, societal ideals, etc. Growing up, it is not too difficult to base one’s worth on what comes home on the report card. This is a problem. As more and more students feel more and more pressure to reach these academic expectations in order to feel as if they are worth something, it can only go downhill. Mental, physical, and emotional health are all crumbled in pieces considering what is expected of students. Stress= frustration and sadness= depression= rise in suicide rate.
To summarize in a sentence, someone’s value cannot be measured by something that a standard that is created by society or does not change to fit each individual person. In the book Siddhartha, Kamala’s self-worth was determined by whether or not Siddhartha loved her back. She sought validation and value from the idea of being rejected, which is one that is exaggerated in society. Just like this instance, students struggle with feeling “enough” by devoting their value toward grades, a standard that does not consider each person’s unique abilities to succeed in school.
Everyone is different and everyone is worth it.
Quaranteen 
I totally agree with you about the self-standards we all have. Especially in society today, I believe that the need to get into a really good college or university is everyone’s goal causing many students to be burned out or tired. It is true that one’s self-worth cannot be measured by books or what school they get into.
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I found it useful that you pointed out how standards can affect mental and emotional health, it’s definitely not talked about as much as it should be. Insecurities can rise and put a serious toll on people who don’t think it’s worth opening up about, just because most of the time, WE’RE the ones putting these standards on ourselves. You did a great job connecting it to Kamala’s situation and I can easily take this lesson and apply it to my own life.
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I am in absolute agreement with your statement, “someone’s value cannot be measured by something that a standard that is created by society.” It’s such a meaningful idea, but it’s easily forgotten. I feel like sometimes, students let the pressure of getting accepted into a good college affect their mental health and their current performance in their classes. I must admit, I am definitely guilty of giving in to the thought of being rejected and have been quite hard on myself mentally because of it. I enjoyed how you included a question in your first paragraph to draw the reader in, it lured me into the rest of your writing.
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I love how you brought attention to this topic, especially since it’s one that tends to go overlooked and unnoticed in society today. I too, am able to relate as I am also a prisoner to societal standards. Sometimes, I wonder what life would be like if societal standards were nonexistent. Like imagine if report cards weren’t a thing. Students wouldn’t have so much pressure to do well in school in a systematic way just to earn a printed letter A on a meaningless piece of paper. But, unfortunately, that paper does have meaning in today’s society. It is our ticket to getting accepted into colleges. But, WHY? Why does it have to be like that? If students weren’t forced to work towards such systematic standards, they would have more creative freedom.
Anyway, I believe that these standards are obsolete and we must work to change it. Thanks for sharing; I was able to meaningfully reflect on your work.
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I love how you brought attention to this topic, especially since it’s one that tends to go overlooked and unnoticed in society today. I too, am able to relate as I am also a prisoner to societal standards. Sometimes, I wonder what life would be like if societal standards were nonexistent. Like imagine if report cards weren’t a thing. Students wouldn’t have so much pressure to do well in school in a systematic way just to earn a printed letter A on a meaningless piece of paper. But, unfortunately, that paper does have meaning in today’s society. It is our ticket to getting accepted into colleges. But, WHY? Why does it have to be like that? If students weren’t forced to work towards such systematic standards, they would have more creative freedom.
Anyway, I believe that these standards are obsolete and we must work to change it. Thanks for sharing; I was able to meaningfully reflect on your work.
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I really liked your comparison at the end. I most definitely agree. I see how it becomes a competition between peers. We start to compare how hard we work and people say things like “I got 5 hours of sleep” “Oh, I only got 3” “I pulled an all nighter” and it starts to become very toxic when it is encouraged by not only peers, but parents, and even society as a whole. I understand the idea of constantly getting better, but I believe there is a certain point where it should plateau, because humans are not machines. I enjoyed reading this, good job!
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I love the problems with standards you’ve pointed out in this post! I agree that it’s detrimental to so many people that everyone is measured by the same benchmark in school. To add on, I think the growing pressure from media, parents, and society as a whole to live up to social standards is really counterintuitive in bringing out everybody’s own unique and special talents. Instead of pursuing a career choice they’re happy with, a lot of students are also pressured from their parents or peers to take jobs like doctors or surgeons when it doesn’t align what they enjoy doing at all. This was a concise read and I loved your connection of this topic with the book Siddhartha!
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