RemembeRED: Comparisons

Prompt:  This week we’d like you to write about a time you found yourself comparing yourself, unfavorably, with someone else.  Focus on how the comparison affected you, negatively or positively.

Anita and I came from very different worlds, although we were born 14 days apart.  We met in our very first Psycho-educational Assessment class, and for awhile we ended up working in the same school district.  We are friends.  She is a great person. 

She's perfect. 

Everybody says this about Anita, that she's perfect.  And she is.  Anita  is one of the hardest working people I know.  She stays up late into the night, writing reports.  She shows up to work early.  Anita always knows just what to say.  She never gets angry, but is always calm and reasonable.

She made it all look so easy, being perfect.  If she could do it, why couldn't I?  

I tried to stay up, writing reports.  I still didn't finish. And I was late to work the next day because I overslept.

I tried to say the right thing; I ended up saying the wrong thing.  Sometimes silence may not be the right thing, but it is often the best thing.

I tried to keep calm and reasonable, but I've never been able to suffer fools.  It's a character flaw.  I ended up more angry than when I started.     

I am not perfect.  I will never be perfect.  I'm not Anita. 

With that small epiphany, I felt liberated. I stopped trying to be Anita.  Instead, I started focusing on being myself.  That has made all the difference.