Have You Met Your Match?

Unavoidable comparison

Some students with below-standard performances in school do not like to be compared with the coeval ones, fearing that they are labeled as inferior repeatedly. The feelings of being looked down on are really hurtful and highly unforgettable. Notwithstanding, it is difficult to evade comparison owing to its ubiquity and necessity. Comparison is in fact the basic gadget for mankind to sustain a life with.

The life history of any creature is a chain of comparisons, each of whose rings or living conditions is not completely identical and is built on the foundation of the previous one. As we know, history per se is also a sinuous chain, along which some people could compare the situations of the same genre and heed the lesson devolved to them but some tramped the same rut to flop. When we have made a great step forward by comparison, we feel so delighted. Contrariwise, we are upset when we have made a step backward. Even if we are not progressive in character, we will keep comparing our current health with the past because we need to make an instant response to any signal of indisposition and it is also a portion of our instinct. For example, those people who sense that there is a terrible slashing of temperature in desert from morning to evening have to don more clothes lest they should catch a cold. Apart from this arid circumstance, comparison helps us all the time in our daily lives and it is absolutely necessary in reality. To those, particularly athletes, who need to push themselves to improve in their performances, comparison is more pressingly indispensable.

The unilateral comparison is fundamental to us and the bilateral one is the preliminary step towards socialization as well as competition. When a man goes to a new place and makes the acquaintance of the people living or working there, he usually attempts to commence a conversation with them so as to break the ice. The first thing he should do is to track down what they share in common. If he can, it is easy for him to be part of them and exclude the possibility to be an outcast. If he cannot, he has to take some time to think of other means. Generally, he would pick out the way to join or start a dialogue related to their neighborhood, community or work. In order to chalk up more points, a new comer is likely to tactfully make use of courtesy, friendliness and empathy together in order to efficiently impress on people and gain trustfulness from them as soon as possible. After building up the initial relationship, keeping observation on both the commonness and the differences is the routine to consolidate the friendship.