By: Katherine Williams. October 17,2017

In high school, such as MHS, students compete everyday against each other. They might not realize it, but they compete against each other for things such as valedictorian, a role in a play, captain for a team, higher class rank and so much more. Is this a good thing, though? Is a little competition healthy and when does it go too far?

        Self esteem can be a big part of a teenager’s life. Whether they have high self esteem can be a huge influence to how good they do in life and school. When kids compete to have a higher spot on the “most bright” list then it can leave the kids on the lower side to feel bad about themselves. When they feel unsure and have low self esteem this can lead to more serious issues. It may bring down their grades because they don’t care how they do since they believe they won’t ever be higher on the list. While they should be working to be better than they were before they should do it at a healthy pace and for their own benefit of getting into a good college and actually getting an education. That idea also can be used when it comes to a sports team or a school play. No teenager should feel worthless just because they aren’t as good at something at someone else.

        Can a little competition be healthy for people? It can be a motivation for people to do better. When teenagers do well their self confidence rises and makes them want to exceed in school even more. Achievement is sort of like a drug. Once you get it, it makes you feel like you’re on top of the world and makes you wanna strive to do better just to have that feeling again. Plus it’s not a bad thing. It may be personal gain but it’s for school and school is important.

        There should be a healthy balance, though. You don’t want to tear down your fellow peers just to get ahead in life. While school is important it may not be important enough to make someone feel bad about themselves. If it’s valedictorian than that could help with your life and future decisions so would making a few people that you’ll never see again feel bad be so horrible? It is life and not everyone can have their way. It is all up to the beholder, so choose wisely in your highschool decisions.