What happened to that very British trait called modesty ? It's fine to share your glorious news with your family via phone calls, private texts, letters or emails but why the hell would you want to rub those whose dreams lie in tatters' noses in the shit ?
These obnoxious people usual accompany their bragging boast with a picture of a glass of celebratory champagne. I do hope they choke on it. I worry for their offspring if this is what their parents are role modelling as an acceptable form of behaviour.
So, my heart-felt congratulations instead are reserved for :
- All of those students who had an academic mountain to climb
- Will doubtless have worked far harder than any of the A* proteges
- May not have achieved the giddy heights of academic stardom and yet will have borne their disappointments with far greater stoicism and humility than the A* braggarts would ever have managed
- The parents who have stood by their struggling children, provided the shoulders to cry on and the emotional support through their children's years of schooling
Shame on those who felt the need to publicly humiliate those who did not excel on results day, will have known this but felt the need to brag regardless and validate their gene pool of brilliance. Doubtless they will demand their right to celebrate their child's victories but had they paused for a minute to think about the misery and feelings of inadequacy they may have inflicted on others , might they not have realised that their pride can be expressed in more private ways ?
So, for all those wonderful young men and women whose efforts in the face of adversity may not have been rewarded , you can stand on the higher moral ground and be certain in the knowledge that your achievements are far greater and one day will be rewarded. You have learnt a far greater lesson and will be stronger for it. Be brave, be proud and as Rudyard Kipling once wrote ' Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it '.
