because I felt I wasn’t making any progress with this goal. The takeaway message is to compare yourself to yourself rather than to other people. I’m not good at remembering things like this. I always need reminders to jolt me back out of whatever pit I am beginning to get sucked into.

Now that the new varsity year is here, academic comparison has begun to creep back in. So I have printed out my marks from last year and stuck them on the wall. It feels good to see them all there together, a standalone unit, a whole, not nested in among everyone else’s where the temptation is just too much. When I look at that wall, I see only my own striving for excellence. What is equally important is what I do not see. I don’t see mass assessment and how I ranked on that. I hate it when they put up class lists with everyone’s marks. Your marks should be for you and you only.