Perfection

Perfection

Nothing perfect exists. It’s just the way things are. Ordinary people chase perfection, addicted to the feeling and infatuation. Ultimately, the question asked is “What does it truly mean to be perfect?” I’ve thought about it for quite some time now and the answer I came up with was nothing. People always say “Nothing’s perfect”, and I’m glad that’s true. Perfection is disgusting. In the words of Mayuri Kurotsuchi, “If something is truly perfect, that’s it. The bottom line is, there is no room for imagination, no space for intelligence, no ability, and no improvement. To people of science, perfection is a dead end. A condition of hopelessness. Always strive to be better than anything that came before you, but not perfect." 

“Are you a perfectionist?” I hope not. Keeping what Kurotsuchi said in mind, I feel like being a perfectionist is a bad thing. Spending time on small things that probably won’t matter in the end sounds pointless. Some people want everything to be just right but there’s a million different ways to do things so you’re never going to necessarily do it “right”. Keeping this mindset, I don’t think I’m a perfectionist. Having a busy schedule and a lot to do, there’s never enough time to get everything done. Trying to make everything just right would make the work twice as long. There may be some ups to perfectionism, but it overall seems like a bad idea for a busy person.

Though this may be true, some may argue there are many ups of being a perfectionist. You have higher standards for yourself and obviously your final outcome ends up being better because you put more time and effort into it. It’s a valid argument that perfectionism causes you to pay attention to the fine details and find all the mistakes. It’s more work, but you get a better outcome. People who are perfectionists usually can’t stand the feeling of something being incomplete. When taken too far, perfection can lead to procrastination, a lack of creativity, and avoiding challenges, which isn’t good at all for someone in high school.

In a way, the average school grading system supports perfection. It encourages students to get 100% on their work, without providing them time to work, and encouraging using your free time to work on homework. This is true in most schools all the way down to elementary school. Encouraging perfection isn’t such a good idea because of the downsides listed above. Especially at a young age, children should have a more relaxed, creative learning path that encourages them to be imaginative and be able to improve. Kids shouldn’t be graded on a system based around perfection, but more on improvement.

-Tristen Ting