Survival of the Fittest—er—Richest…or Most-Educated…

It started back in grade school for girls with twin day and for boys with who had more items in their Hot Wheels collection. We didn’t want to be the one who stood out in dumpy clothes or as the idiot who couldn’t answer Mrs. Jones’ times table question. In middle school, it got even worse. Now we couldn’t enjoy the simplicity of matching our best friend down to the same scrunchie—we had to dress like our friends without actually seeming like we were trying to look like each other. And boys, don’t pretend you didn’t do this too—“Thomas got the new N64 game, and I NEEEEEEED it. TODAAAAAAAAAY” (insert whining and crying and begging on the floor here). Once we got to high school, this little thing called competition became a little more defined, even though in reality it was around since the wee years of our existence. At this interesting life juncture, many of us flat-out manipulated, dictated, and finagled our way to being the best in a variety of different things—athletics, academics, popularity, attire, and, if you were “lucky” enough to attend a high school like mine, how much money your parents made and furthermore bestowed upon you in the form of a Benz, the latest and greatest from Abercrombie and Fitch, and extravagant spring break vacations (luckily, I did NOT fall into this, ahem, financial category, so was spared the drama).

A lot of us I would presume, myself included, believed that the ridiculousness of competition would fade with age. As I delved into college culture, however, I was soon met with the realization that competition does not weaken at all but rather evolves with each life stage into something increasingly more annoying with each new dimension. Because in college most of us were too poor to worry about material goods, we focused on getting the highest grades, scoring the best professor recommendations, and landing job opportunities right out of school. Within the college mumbo-jumbo era many also begin to transition to the next arena of life where the competition gets even stiffer—The Real World. This is where most of us in our 20-somethings land today—and it’s brutal out there. Girls start rallying for the biggest diamond in record time and guys for the best positions at work and the ability to buy rounds of drinks for buds at the priciest hotspot. We are suddenly surrounded by circles of friends who care more about your annual salary and designer handbag than the wine they are drinking with good company. Conversation becomes calculated and questions pointed—meanwhile, if you stop and stare for a moment, you can almost see the wheels turning and thoughts of “luckily my house has more square-footage than that,” and “my husband would never cheat on me like yours does on you” practically beaming from the top of their heads. House parties turn from a parade of booze and hookups in days of old to a showcase for amazingness and one-upping others in the social circle—via imported furniture and the latest beverages from Napa’s finest and most exclusive wine club no less. “So-and-so lost his job” and private satisfaction with being the first to share this information abounds since the tattler maintains a cushy position in their own company. This is competition at its finest, Mean Girls at its peak. Most people our age would agree that a small dose of competition is healthy and even beneficial in pushing us to reach farther than we normally would, but in taking a step back and realizing where we have actually taken competition, we see that the entire concept is down-right ridiculous.

Is this a new phenomenon? Not at all. If nothing else, competition in this sense has actually improved over the decades. Remember the class system? Aristocracy? Social events to do nothing more than socially promote? Competition is absolutely not novel in our society, and it would be foolish to think that this very common part of life would one day subside. What I do think, however, is that 20-somethings need to chill on the constant attempt to out-do and focus more on the important things of life. We do not live in the 1800’s, and the class system is for the most part dead—we should keep it that way. Margaritas on this fine spring day anyone?