Confessions of a try-hard

I am a self-described people pleaser. I’m also a try-hard. My Google calendar probably puts you all to shame, though that may have something to do with the fact that I pencil in trivial things like Facetime sessions and phone calls, and it is incredibly difficult for me to say no to any jobs or activities that come my way.

You can ask my family, my friends, my college counselor, my advisor – probably my dog too – and all would affirm the fact that I rarely have a millisecond free.

But why do we do this to ourselves, and how do we keep up the facade under pressure? Here are a few honest confessions from a try-hard to a non-try-hard.

We’re sick of our bad rep

Try-hards get this bad rep as the kids who used to try way too hard in gym class, or the ones who would actually ask to turn in homework (like, why?).

We’re basically a population of people that nobody likes. However, now that the days of P.E. are over, we’re thinking the definition is due for a change.

‘Minimalism’ makes us cringe

We hate this whole movement towards things that are effortless and natural, whether it’s beauty routines, just-out-of-the-ocean wavy hair, or those Kendall Jenner simplistic but painfully chic outfits.

Even intelligence is looked at with more respect if you seem to achieve greatness without trying.

We deserve more praise

We all know there are two types of smart kids: the ones who spend twelve hours in the library on a daily basis, and the ones who don’t go at all. The latter are lauded, while at the former we often turn up our noses.

Casual try-hards don’t exist

It’s a concept that has seemingly swept the social scene of young adults, and adolescents especially.

The ‘cool girl’ phenomenon serves as yet another example of something that has to appear second-nature, like she has achieved it all without lifting a finger. These people also don’t actually exist.

It’s not easy making it look easy

We get a lot of people who give us a once-over with a “wow you do it all,” while simply glossing over the dark circles under our eyes.

Yes. This is a half-truth. However, here is the other half:

Some of the things we do are purely for our parents and/or resume boosters.

We do not get a good amount of sleep. Ever. And we haven’t even been on Netflix in probably six months.

Going off that, we have never finished a series on Netflix.

To keep up our appearance of never failing and never succumbing to normal human problems, we also don’t nap.

We are usually sweating. And speeding. And swearing while speeding, probably.

We still probably wouldn’t change a thing.