“You’re such a try-hard.” “You care too much.”  “You’re a teacher’s pet.” These phrases are common for high-achieving students to hear throughout school.

Many of them were the ‘smart kid’ since beginning in elementary school and are subject to frequent harassment for it. They prevail in school and receive rewards of names like ‘kiss-up’ or ‘over-achiever’ from their peers. Where’s the fairness in that?

Try-hard— the most ridiculous insult there is. Trying hard to succeed became something negative so people deny they are working hard. “Oh no, I don’t try hard at all! Who cares about school? Not me.”

What?! Why wouldn’t someone work hard and invest their 100 percent effort into school? After all, they are there 35 hours per week.

Of course high-achieving students try-hard— they set high goals to reach and are willing to execute what it takes to meet them; while other students just try to bring them down.

Although some accuse smart students of working too hard in school, others assume these students don’t even deserve the grades they receive— they think the students earn their grades from “sucking-up,” which is ludacris. Some people love to assume someone with straight As doesn’t really deserve them, they just beg for them. Is that even possible?

When any student is nice to a teacher their peers call them a “teacher’s pet.”

Why not assume the student is smart? Or is a hard-worker? Could it be jealousy? Probably.

People also accuse students of caring about school too much. Care too much? Impossible. High school is a stepping stool for life. Perform well in high school, attend a good college, be diligent in college, obtain a good job, earn good money, retire, be happy. It all correlates. No one could care too much about something affecting the rest of their life.

Students who are made fun of for doing well in school should just stop and think. They are the ones who will be successful— not only in school, but in life. They should not let others drag down.

Try hard. Be nice to your teacher. Care a lot. Be successful.