...is the source of unhappiness, the seed of negative energy, or in short, the root of all evil.
I have a very good student, a smart one, keen on learning, with a pleasant attitude that that makes me look forward to our sessions. But she is, by their mother, constantly compared to her elder sister (who happened to be born overseas and be able to figure out things quicker so her mother baptised her as "my most intelligent and talented daughter"). Both are my students, so I came with the same approach towards both, but since their mother is too busy paying compliments to the first child, from time to time I have to reassure the second one that she is just as smart and talented as the first (and in fact, more musical and more receptive to lessons). I actually find the first child, perhaps because of too much praises from mamma, thought too highly of herself, which makes her difficult to take instruction and to achieve progress.
Another case: I have a friend who was a smart woman and graduated from university with flying colours and now a stay-at-home mum. I said and. But she said but. "Look at me. I got this super GPA but now all I do is picking my kids from school and drop them to courses. Whenever I look at my friends' status updates on Facebook, I feel so useless."
One more example: I recently found a Facebook profile of a woman who is now married to my ex-boyfriend. I was perfectly happy being single with occasional flirtatious relationships, but when I read her status I started to compare her life with mine (she seemed very happily married) and by comparing how disastrous my relationship was with her now-hubby, I got to feel left behind and see my love life with gray-coloured eye-glasses.
Comparison is a killjoy. I think human being starts to feel lacking when they start to develop the ability to compare themselves to others. (All first children must be less happy when they got a baby sister/brother and found out that their siblings could get a bigger portion of ice cream). With the rise of social media like Facebook and Twitter where people voluntarily (a lot of time!) expose their personal life , we are more prone to this social disease. It's of course inevitable. But I think it's all illusions.
Nobody's life is perfect in all situations and aspects. Some people share only the good and wonderful stuffs that happen in their lives, and some share even the tiniest, shittiest moments to anyone who's willing to read and respond. But we all know that even the shiny-happy people must have their share of bad day at the office and the life of les miserables won't always grim (otherwise they would kill themselves and no longer appear on Facebook). It happens to all of us without exception, and even though we know it, most of us always see that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.
I think what people forget these days is to compare themselves with themselves. People don't often think that 'my life is now better than before' or 'I know more now than I knew then'. In here, it what makes the country stays in its mediocre status. I find that only very few cares to do it better, to step up the game and to improve themselves from time to time. Very few people simply don't ask themselves if they have given the best in comparison to their real capacity and capability. People see other people doing lousy works, and they thought it's all right to be just 'ok' because others were doing less. People were busy competing with others, sometimes in things that are not important, and they forget that the biggest enemy we must conquer is ourselves.
