Assignment 22-Lydia Klumb

My family is full of over-achievers and perfectionists. I've grown up in a household where if I didn't get the highest score or the best grades, it wasn't good enough. Naturally, that can put a lot of pressure on someone to always be perfect. My sister always excelled in school. She was a good student, never really did anything wrong, always got high grades, and had amazing SAT and ACT scores. My parents always used to compare our grades and scores when I was growing up, holding me to the same standard as her. This encouraged a competition of sorts. She would set the bar for what was expected of me, and two years later I would try to have the same grades and test scores as she did, if not higher. If she got a four on the AP test, I had to get a five. If she got a 95 in a class, I wanted a 98. This has been going on for as long as I can remember, and has helped me strive for perfection in my academic goals. But until recently, I never really thought about how this could be harmful. My sister and I are different people with different strengths, so I shouldn't feel the need to compare myself to her. After realizing this I have been able to work on comparing myself to her, and will remind myself that we are each good at different things and it doesn't matter what she got as long as I know I worked as hard as I could and tried my best.