Blog Post #5 The Art of Complaining

After reading through this prompt I knew right away what I wanted to write about. Since I am graduating in May I have started to realize many things about adulthood and college/success as a whole. My complaint about society today is that we no longer congratulate success and instead expect it. I do not believe that this is a completely bad thing but I do think that people should be congratulating others more often compared to asking about the next steps.

For starters I think that people only truly congratulate people when they have done something extremely rare or unheard of. This concept resonates with me personally with my family because I am the third child who has graduated from a prestigious college, but I am also the first child who has not gone to medical school. So I think that for my parents the expectation is for me to do more than a bachelors like my brothers before me. I believe that my parents have taken my success for granted after seeing the success for my older brothers. I think that people need to start taking a second to appreciate where they are at in life and the success they have already achieved. Especially in these times of COVID-19 people should start appreciating their successes more.

Overall, I do not think that this is a bad thing all around. Having high expectations for society is a great way to motivate individuals to go far and beyond their “potential”. Many people live their lives never being happy with themselves and always looking to grow and succeed in a different facet which is definitely a great way to live. Personal motivation is an essential part of success in the real world and setting high expectations for yourself can really help you get close to your goals. People with low expectations do not succeed as much because they are happy with their current state in life.

This idea plays into my opinion of society that no one truly cares about you except for family and a select few friends. The most important thing to me is being happy with myself and being proud of where I have come from and where I am at. Overall I think that society focuses on the negatives of people too much instead of celebrating achievements. I think that is it very important for people to not rely on other’s approval and start approving of ourselves. It truly is a dog-eat-dog world out there and I recommend that we all take a second to pat ourselves on the back for the accomplishments that we have achieved that have gone unnoticed.

I have asked other people about this concept and they agreed for the most part. One of my friends brought up a great point and stated that since COVID-19 basically ruined our college experience and graduation ceremony many people just aren’t thinking of us graduates and our accomplishments. There are no huge parties/ceremonies for us because of social distancing. I believe that this has definitely played a huge role in why I feel uncongratulated for graduating this May.