Comparative Advatages

I'm not exactly sure if it was him, but I'm tempted to say that I quote Einstein when I say:

"Everything is relative."


Today, we got back our midterms, and let me say, it was a particularly difficult test. Among the 30 of us in class, only 7 (or 8) passed, and of those, only 3 of us were in the line-of-9's. Now, I know that this may come across as being pompous or arrogant, but with a 92 (the highest was a 99), I wasn't exactly the happiest bunny in the bunch. This, however, was contrasted by the other 4 (or 5) of my classmates who were more than happy with their 85's.

I'm not saying that 85's are bad at all, or that they don't deserve to be happy. God knows that in some of my other subjects, 85's would been heaven-sent's. But nonetheless, it was one of those situations where I was stuck in an awkward stasis.

You see, I'm a very emotive person when stroked the right way, and I fear that I may have reacted a bit too exaggeratedly at my 92. Given the standards impressed on me, and the environment from which I came from, my actions (and reactions) were more than justified; but in this new environment, I guess it wasn't. I'm still not sure how to act though. I want to make up for it by cheering the others on, and offering encouraging words to those whom I tried to help, but weren't able to get particularly good grades. However, as we all might know by now, predilection by judgment of previous action (which leads to question, is it even predilection?) can taint what are possibly good motives in future words and deeds.

In layman's terms?

Well, let's talk about this specifically. I want to say and offer a sincere "good job!" to the other 4 (or 5) who passed, but I fear that my genuine concern and cheering-on might be interpreted as patronizing them or something of an extension of pompousness.

argh.

Then again, if I really am being sincere, why should I be afraid of telling them such? right? :)