Don't compare yourself

BY CAITLIN HEIMERL

I originally shared this as a speech for a formal dinner at Principia Upper School in St. Louis, Missouri. The evening honors the senior high-school girls and gives them the opportunity to share gratitude for their experience before they graduate. A month or so before the dinner, the girls in our high school vote for four senior girls whom they admire or feel would have an inspiring message to share at this dinner. I was honored to be one of those four seniors chosen to speak.

The opportunity to make comparisons arises every day. On the surface, comparisons may seem harmless, but when it comes to comparing ourselves, our work, or our achievements with those of others, we start treading on dangerous ground.

At the start of her article titled "Vainglory," Mary Baker Eddy quoted William Shakespeare: "Comparisons are odorous" (Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896, p. 267). I have thought time and again about why such a wise and careful observer of human nature as Shakespeare would make this statement with such certainty, and why Mary Baker Eddy would include it in her writings.

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