Be selfish

academiac:

So your friend rings you up while you’re in the middle of an assignment and asks you how to do a certain maths problem? Tell them to get lost - well, not that direct, but say that you’re trying to finish the assignment and you’ll get back to them when you have completed it. That’s one of the biggest mistakes I made during high school - I put others before me and perhaps it was the wrong thing to do. Because I was one of the “better achieving” students, I developed a reputation such that people just rang me up for whatever reason if they couldn’t understand anything.

In retrospect, it probably helped me because I knew things better when I explained them, but it just wasted so much valuable time and I think I could have done a lot better if I hadn’t helped so many people. I was such a pushover in that aspect. I just couldn’t say no to people asking for help. But what you always have to say no to is if and when people ask you to send them your assignments. That is a big, BIG no. It’s stupid in more aspects than one - firstly, it’s against the rules and secondly, you’re risking YOUR marks. The world is not kind - in high school, people are out there to get you, so don’t even start to give in. It’s alright to help to a certain aspect, but leave it at that. If people want you to send them your assignments, draw the line. They don’t respect you and your work ethic.

(via trick-or-triet)