Dilemma

You encounter a dilemma. Would you appeal to the authority? Or would you appeal to your loved ones? Here, by “appealing” I mean simply, smiling to them more often, putting more of your effort in making them feel better whenever they seem down, and wishing to show them only the best of yourself.

 The authority could come in many different forms. It could be your seniors (compared to juniors), teachers (opposed to friends), and the crowd (rather than an individual). Now it seems like you have a bunch of dilemmas to solve. But we all know that the “authority” comes in one big group, and the “loved ones” in the other. We also acknowledged that it is not easy to choose one, perhaps the “crowd”, from this group, then another separately, maybe your “friends”, from the other group.

 Both choices brings side-effects. Therefore, the smarter ones will choose whatever brings them less pain in the end.

 I once had a friend who gave me the answers to end my dilemma. To be straight forward, she was the one who chose the authority over her loved ones. She would be rather an outcast among her grade, but the “memorable” kid among the upper graders. She would treat you like an invisible person when alone with just the two of us, but as soon as the crowd walks in, she would suddenly put on a smile as if it was there the entire time. She would never appear on individual chats, but put much effort to attract everyone’s attention on group chats. As a result, most teachers and seniors praised her for always being bright, hard working, but at the same time, being the top student in class. Even those of the same grade got successfully fooled, but actually her closest people, including myself, started to get hurt, tired, and betrayed by her “show.” I myself, who believed me to be one of her “loved ones” eventually, turned my back on her as well.

She lived a one efficient life, and to that, we all can’t disagree. Perhaps up to a certain point, she might be satisfied at having become the top student, the most famous student, the club leaders, and so on. Killing three, four birds with one stone. However, she’ll realize by the end that the one thing she missed out on was worth more than all of the others put together.

The side effects of not appealing to the authority are obvious. Not becoming the most popular student, failing to get chosen as the leader, and the list goes on. You might not be able to become the top student even, because appealing to your “loved ones” requires time, effort, and most of all, your honesty, which might leave you with less time to focus on other things.

 Now, weighing the pain of the each side effect, I’ll have to leave it up to you.