During a day of 1440 minutes, thoughts are constantly filling our brains. Studies show that 10% of your thoughts are comparisons. Students at Oak Park are surrounded by high achieving students and many tend to start comparing themselves to others.
Oak Park High School’s Principal Mat McClenahan notices this happening a lot on campus.
“Stop comparing yourself to everybody else. You do you and handle your business, you take care of you,” McClenahan said. “The most grounding thing that you can do as a young person is to stop comparing yourself to everybody else. Just live your best life and you will be okay.”
While the idea of what comes next after high school may cause some stress, OPHS prepares students for the next chapters of their lives.
“Students here are incredibly well prepared for what comes up after high school,” McClenahan said. “Our students are getting ready for whatever they want to do in their adulthood. That is a hugely positive and wonderful thing.”
Biologically, the human brain will use comparison in an attempt to measure up to others but can often also take a toll on mental health.
However, comparisons can be beneficial to some students. Some students may need an extra push, and the motivation of others may be what helps them. McClenahan wants students to be reminded that everything will be okay no matter what others are doing around you.
“When you’re forward thinking, when you’re looking to achieve highly, it is very easy to overestimate the importance of any current moment. You may think that what’s happening right, this second is going to always happen. It’s always going to be great, or it’s always going to be terrible,” McClenahan said. “The reality is that’s not that’s not how it is. So, the concern I have is when you overestimate both the severity and the permanence of whatever it is that you’re doing.”
All OPHS students are different. When it comes to grades, classes, extracurriculars and sports, it is easy to compare how you are doing to another student. Many students worry about how they are doing just because of the other students around them.
“I think that there is a tendency here to be concerned that if you don’t have straight A’s, that there’s something wrong with you. And I think that’s not true. I think that everybody’s living their own life” said McClenahan. “You’re around other students who are doing amazing work, I think it’s pretty easy sometimes to slip into the idea that if I’m not the most elite every single second of every single day, that there’s something wrong.”
McClenahan shares that what others are doing is not meant to be taken in a bad way against you. It is important to be happy for the other students around you and their achievements.
“Setting high goals is what everybody should do all the time, but then internalizing that if for whatever reason you don’t you see somebody who’s got a higher grade than you, or did better on a test, or got into a college that you didn’t get into or and you internalize that as a negative comment about you,” said McClenahan. “What they are doing has nothing to do with you. The reality is, we all walk our own path.”
