Recently, I discovered that a high school near my hometown did not allow National Honor Society students to wear their stoles because “they did not want other students feeling left out.” Plano Senior High School administration stated that they “want all students to feel included in graduation and do not want to single students out.” This is absolutely ludicrous. The saddest part is that the news of this ridiculous occurrence didn’t shock me. When did we become a society of participation trophies? When did hard work and success become something that should not be rewarded? Frankly, I’m tired of it.

When did whining about how things aren’t your way become so frequent that we have to step on eggshells to get around someone being offended? To those who this applies to: the world does not revolve around you or your hurt feelings. It is not fair to reprimand those that have worked hard and actually put in the effort to accomplish something just because someone feels left out. If you want the glory, you have to earn it. That’s the way life works. If you want money, then get a job and earn it. If you want to win your baseball game, then put in the work outside of your baseball practice to work on your skills. If you want to wear an NHS stole to your high school graduation, then study hard and put in the extra time to excel. In life, there are always going to be people that are better than you in some aspects and that’s OK. It’s actually a good thing to take a big slice of humble pie and see that you aren’t always going to be the best. What’s not OK is to take someone’s hard work away from them just because you want to be the best.

Teaching the younger generation that hard work shouldn’t be rewarded and that everyone should mold to your opinion to not offend you is raising selfish and entitled young people. Just like the fact that you aren’t always going to win or be the best, you aren’t always going to agree with someone else’s opinion. The main theme that I am seeing these past couple years is people getting offended by certain issues and forcing other people to agree with them. There are 7 billion people in the world with all different backgrounds, so not everyone is going to agree with your opinion. That’s life. Learning to respect other people’s opinions and see other points of view makes you a well rounded person. But teaching young people to whine about how someone hurt your feelings because their opinion is not something that you agree with is wrong.

Not being the best is OK and hearing other people’s opinions is OK. The world does not revolve around just you or just me, and we need to stop acting like it does.