Humble-bragging is a relatively new term, but one that definitely needs to be more widely recognized.
The art of humble-bragging is a subtle one.
Humble-braggers begin their process quietly, sewing the conversational battle ground with land mines set to trigger carefully laid traps.
The humble-bragger has but one desire: to modestly boast about trivial accomplishments.
But modest-boaster doesn’t sound as good as humble-bragger.
We’ve all run into them. They are the ones who seem to always want to let you know that they are in fact better but do not want to outright say it.
They instead dance around the subject, try to get you to bring up a certain topic and then attack.
For example, the humble-bragger will claim to be horrible at math and will then reveal that his or her math ACT score was in the thirties. But “only a 32.”
Humble-bragging is becoming a pandemic that is taking our campus by storm, and it must be stopped.
Everywhere you turn, they are waiting with their college resumes in hand— wanting to show you how “badly” they did with their extracurricular classes and activities.
They’re moaning like zombies over test scores that weren’t perfect.
The first way to protect yourself against this invasion is to evaluate how you are treating a conversation.
Are you waiting for the chance to pitifully announce one of your achievements? You might just be a humble-bragger.
Are you trying to speak loudly enough so that everyone in the bookstore line will hear you? You are most definitely a humble-bragger.
The cure is simple. Realize that once you reach college, ACT scores and AP classes don’t really matter.
No one cares anymore because you’ve already made it; you’ve proven that you are smart enough, active enough or spirited enough to get in.
Also, realize that just because you were popular in high school, it doesn’t mean you will be popular in college.
There are tons of students who were the “popular kids” in high school. Find your niche.
You don’t have to be a brilliantly shining comet. It’s okay to settle for that nice little star. Stars are steady, after all, while comets only last a short time.
In college, different things matter. You being crowned as homecoming queen in your senior year of high school is not one of them.
But don’t be ashamed of it either. Just don’t bring it up to everyone you meet.
There is a time and a place for everything, and the stranger you are talking to in the bookstore line probably does not care.
It’s awesome that you were an AP student, but it’s also awesome if you weren’t! Because in college, everyone is in the same classes together. There is no such thing as an AP class.
The main thing to remember is that you are unique, just like everyone else.
Not to be cynical or sound bitter, but remember that there are hundreds of people around this campus that are interesting and new who have the shared experience of high school.
Don’t just stick with your old friends. Make some new ones to complement the old ones.
Get out of your comfort zone and hang out with someone that you thought wasn’t “cool” enough for you high school.
Stop boasting your old letterman and join a team on campus.
As important as your high school accomplishments are, this is a fresh start. Be happy about what you have done and do something new.
You deserve to be proud of yourself, just not at the expense of the stranger standing behind you in Starbucks.
#StopTheHumbleBragging2k14.
