Not Everyone Needs to Like You: Embracing Growth and Self-Worth

In my Class 6, a new boy joined our class. His name is Prashant (name changed). On the first day of his school, he sat with me, and we had a funny conversation with each other. We both ate together, and as friends, we vibed a lot during those days.

After one month, they conducted an examination. Since I studied in CBSE, their pattern for examinations was completely different from the state board syllabus. After the first midterm got completed, I was nervously waiting for my results. My mam came into the class with an angry face and said the whole class was filled with dumb minds. In that examination, my grade in all subjects was D, which means I just passed in all subjects. But my friend Prashant scored an A grade, which was an outstanding achievement for someone who came from a state board. This was because state boards mostly train their students to memorize the concepts, but in CBSE, understanding is the most essential part of learning.

After getting those rank cards and getting signatures from them, my parents never forced me to study. For the next examination, I studied with a chill mindset and improved my rank from D to B. In the quarterly exams, no one in my class could believe I upgraded my rank from 26th to 10th. I felt happy about it without comparing myself with others. I enjoyed the progress. As I was a dull student in my class, I simply believed I could, and I did, even though many people trolled and insulted me.

But the scene was not the same for Prashant. His rank dropped from the top 10 to 30th. He couldn’t accept his rank, and I couldn’t understand his feelings at that time because he felt envious of me. From the next examination onwards, I uplifted my rank from 10th to the top 5. I think that was my craziest peak time. In extracurricular activities, I also explored myself through prayer activities. Prashant simply started insulting me whenever he got a chance. If I sat with my friends in a group, he would also sit there, and during eating time, he would troll me about my body. I was fat.

Initially, his words had no impact on my heart, but saying the same things repeatedly irritated me. He tried to prove in front of others that I was an idiot and didn’t know anything. Whenever he got the chance, he tried to insult me, and he did it well. In the basketball ground, when I shot well with the ball, he felt happy and shouted, “Good, Shiv! Keep it up!” like that. He simply tried to lower my confidence, but it wasn’t a big thing for me.

One day, Vijayalakshmi(name changed), my Tamil mam, came to my class. She was my mentor who always insisted I live with discipline and dedication through her actions. She said, “Sivaraj (name changed) is the worst guy in our class,” in a constructive manner, adding that if given certain instructions, he could change. Suddenly, Prashant came in front of her and said, “It is not him, mam. It is Shivakumar.” In front of her, he spoke badly about me. I cried, and mam asked me angrily. The whole class supported me, and through this incident, I learned that not everyone needs to love us. Some may hurt us, and we can sense it through their words. Ignoring calmly will solve all our problems.