Are we expected to be the next generation of these important men and women, the future leaders of our generation? Throughout our journey from elementary to tertiary school we find ourselves continually told that, yes, we are expected to be the next generation of leaders. Pressure to be the best comes from many different places. Our peers. Our family. Our society as a whole. But is the largest component of this pressure coming from ourselves? Pressure imposed upon us by our own conscience telling us that no matter what we must find success in life. Success not defined by us, but success defined by the society we live in.
Someone asked me yesterday, "Do you feel pressured by your parents?" I responded that I did not feel pressured at all by my parents, citing the fact that my parents continuously ask me whether I think this major is right, encouraging me to try new things and reminding me that I'm not pigeonholed into this major for the rest of my college career. There was no denying however that I felt pressure to succeed at this major. But then if I was telling this woman the pressure wasn't coming from my parents (which is true), then where was this pressure coming from.
And, voilà, I have an idea for Tuesday's blog post. I believe wholeheartedly that the largest component of pressure is put upon us by ourselves. One could argue that I am simply misinterpreting the definition of pressure, but I disagree. Pressure is a force per unit area...curses Physics 7A... but yeah pressure that I am referring to is defined as an influence by object A on a person. That influence is exerted on you at a specific time (say time A). At time A you feel the effects of that pressure and whether you decide to overcome the influence or give in will have an immediate effect on your current environment (environment being defined by a wide variety of factors that I am sure you can extrapolate).
Your environment is only affected by this pressure at time A though. Fast-forward to some time later in the day (yay variables, time B) where you decide to evaluate your response to the pressure at time A. You are putting pressure on yourself by reevaluating the same pressure experienced earlier. I'm sorry for all these variable examples but basically: you are creating a new pressure (pressure B (pressure at time B)) that is pressure put on yourself equal to the pressure experience earlier at time A (pressure A). Hence, by this proof (and I guess it turned out to be a literal proof) the two pressure forces are different.
Back on to the main topic of this post. The pressure you are putting on yourself at the later time (time B, I swear we're done with variables now) is an unnecessary force. Why is it unnecessary? Because it is put upon you by yourself, and if you tell yourself you aren't going to pressure yourself well then you won't pressure yourself. Now, that was extremely confusing, but hopefully you can see what I'm saying.
I realized after this lady asked me whether my parents pressure me that I was a victim of this self-pressuring I just described. I constantly compare myself with others in my classes and put pressure on myself to be better than the current me when they seem to be doing better than me. I feel confident in saying that pressure sucks and if you want to dispute me on that well then, Darren, please leave. Thus, I'm going to try, based on this theory of mine I so diligently proved for y'all, to remove the unnecessary pressure from my life. I am going to do what I can to the best of my ability, and be happy with that result.
Damn, how cheesy was that. Let's take a look at the monstrous bananas that Qualcom has:
So that concludes my experiment of a post. Something different for a change. And finally to conclude with a funny (depending on your perspective) story so this post isn't all sappy. This weekend my parents were up here and we went out to brunch with Kevin and Cole at this nice fish place called Spengers. Well, I had never tried oysters and I was curious so I decided that Kevin, Cole, and I would all split an oyster. Kevin and I cautiously (read: smartly) took a bite out of our oyster to decide that we didn't like it too much. Cole decided to down his entire piece. Needless to say, our table was soon covered in puke. Luckily Kevin and I, sitting closest to Cole, were still out of the splash zone, but yeah it was funny to see Cole puke. Do I feel bad about sharing Cole's embarrassing moment with all of you? No, because Cole always finds it appropriate to bring up my throw-up stories in front of everyone -_- So yeah, Derek I think you should recommend that your mom go and buy some oysters before Spring Break. Tell her you heard Cole loves them.
Hopefully all of you get the title of this post, if not you better look it up.
Love your faces,
Jason
And, voilà, I have an idea for Tuesday's blog post. I believe wholeheartedly that the largest component of pressure is put upon us by ourselves. One could argue that I am simply misinterpreting the definition of pressure, but I disagree. Pressure is a force per unit area...curses Physics 7A... but yeah pressure that I am referring to is defined as an influence by object A on a person. That influence is exerted on you at a specific time (say time A). At time A you feel the effects of that pressure and whether you decide to overcome the influence or give in will have an immediate effect on your current environment (environment being defined by a wide variety of factors that I am sure you can extrapolate).
Your environment is only affected by this pressure at time A though. Fast-forward to some time later in the day (yay variables, time B) where you decide to evaluate your response to the pressure at time A. You are putting pressure on yourself by reevaluating the same pressure experienced earlier. I'm sorry for all these variable examples but basically: you are creating a new pressure (pressure B (pressure at time B)) that is pressure put on yourself equal to the pressure experience earlier at time A (pressure A). Hence, by this proof (and I guess it turned out to be a literal proof) the two pressure forces are different.
Back on to the main topic of this post. The pressure you are putting on yourself at the later time (time B, I swear we're done with variables now) is an unnecessary force. Why is it unnecessary? Because it is put upon you by yourself, and if you tell yourself you aren't going to pressure yourself well then you won't pressure yourself. Now, that was extremely confusing, but hopefully you can see what I'm saying.
I realized after this lady asked me whether my parents pressure me that I was a victim of this self-pressuring I just described. I constantly compare myself with others in my classes and put pressure on myself to be better than the current me when they seem to be doing better than me. I feel confident in saying that pressure sucks and if you want to dispute me on that well then, Darren, please leave. Thus, I'm going to try, based on this theory of mine I so diligently proved for y'all, to remove the unnecessary pressure from my life. I am going to do what I can to the best of my ability, and be happy with that result.
Damn, how cheesy was that. Let's take a look at the monstrous bananas that Qualcom has:
 |
| I swear its like at least 1 foot long... |
Hopefully all of you get the title of this post, if not you better look it up.
Love your faces,
Jason
I looked up your title, song lyrics. Yipee.
ReplyDeleteYour talk about self-induced pressure made me think of the first couple lines of the Pokemon song.
How was the banana?
Ask Cole what happened in the Tenaya Lodge at Yosemite in the summer of 2003 concerning him, me, the fifth Harry Potter book, and a whole bunch of puke. Actually, he probably doesn't remember what OotP has to do with this because, ya know, he's not exactly a member of the Order.
I didn't get the banana, my friend I was getting lunch with did. If you could tell, that's not my arm.
ReplyDeleteI could tell that wasn't your arm. I like this post style, reminds me of me when I get in "those moods". Of course you put pressure on yourself. You don't wake up and realize you're valedictorian of a fiercely competitive, AP-oriented high school (mostly because you don't get much sleep on that route, so there aren't many opportunities to "wake up and realize" anything, haha).
ReplyDeleteWhen you google "it burns a building down" this is the third result (for me, anyway). As I was typing the phrase, the google suggestion of "it burns a bit when I pee" amused me.