“Success is balanced by faults; those who succeed are those people who overcompensate.”
--- Topher, Episode 1, Dollhouse, season 1
“I try to be my best.”
“And are you?”
“What?”
“Are you your best?”
“I’m not sure how to know that”
“I think that if you always try, that’s best”
--- Sierra and Echo, Episode4, Dollhouse, season 1
I used to be the classmate anyone would hate to have. I don’t remember ever cheating back in high school or allowing any classmate to take a peek at my answer sheet during exams. Yeah, I was that bad. I was a grade conscious student then; but then again, so is half the class I was in (I belonged in the cream section). None of my classmates were mean to me though. They just accepted the fact that that’s just the way I am.
I was flattered a lot when my classmates talked about me during my sophomore year in college. No, they didn’t realize I was around; we were at the canteen then, it was lunchtime and the place was so cramped. They were doing the whole Mean Girls thing and were “assessing” classmates (I checked. There was no burn book around). They were talking about how I was busying myself reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets while everyone seems to be too busy reviewing things, cramping notes inside their heads and yet I was acing the tests. They didn’t know though that the secret was reading notes and textbooks three to four chapters in advance at home while watching Charmed (and juggling that with finishing home works of course).
But the next year, I got tired of it. I just felt lost. A friend back in high school said I was experiencing burnout. And maybe I was. (I was frightened though when she said what I was experiencing is irreversible, and my gusto towards what I was doing will never be that strong again. Maybe she was right. But while my gusto was deteriorating, I managed to obtain a government scholarship, compete up to the nationals of our college quiz show, and obtain a spot in the top 20 passers of our professional licensure exam.)
But in the end, my friend was so damn right. My flame was extinguished. I am unhappy. And I am continuing this path of unfulfilled life I am in. I forgot how to overcompensate. I was happy then. Overcompensating. Doing more. But I lost my way.
And now, that Dollhouse quotes I used in the beginning of this entry reminded me of it once more. To do more. To overcompensate. To always try.
I know, my whining and ranting in this entry would not help me. It would not change a thing. And now I will put thoughts into action. I will read notes five chapters ahead while watching TV, figuratively of course.
With this brand new outlook, I’m hoping I would be able to see through this personal task that I had in mind for myself. I have to. And I will.