<p>For the last few years, I have been pretty ambitious and even more so, after attending an international science fair and seeing how much a high school student can actually do. Since no one at my school enters in national competitions, I thought I would enter in some in order to inspire some bright kids at my school, bring some recognition to my school, travel to different cities in the U.S., and most importantly, learn new things that my school would never teach me.</p>
<p>But for some reason, I feel that this is coming at a "cost." Yes, I enjoy.... No, I actually love to participate in USA Computing Olympiad, Chemistry Olympiad, National History Day, etc. But since all of these competitions are very unfamiliar to people at my school, people think that I either have no life doing them or I am trying to hard to become "amazing."</p>
<p>I was wondering if other CCers who could have attended not-so-great high schools, but took great initiation have been through this situation or similar situations.</p>
<p>It’s a given that if you act like it’s a burden to go to an “average” school and you parade around your achievements as a result, you’re not going to recieve any positive reactions.</p>
<p>I get called this all the time. I don’t do anything impressive like you listed, but I do get all A’s. At my underachieving school, they think I am a “try hard.” </p>
<p>It sucks because people who have never personally met me just know me as the try hard girl. But I remember that when it comes time to apply to colleges, they will wished they had tried a little harder.</p>
<p>^Yeah. I agree. If people make fun of you, just remind yourself why you’re doing it. Take it as a compliment, then those people will back off.</p>
<p>I got called a try-hard today during band camp, actually. I was doing my AP Chemistry homework during a break because I want to spend the rest of my summer hanging out with people outside band, and not doing homework.</p>
<p>I have been called a try-hard because I do legitimately try hard when it comes to school and my literary pursuits. Me being labeled a try hard would be correct hahaha</p>
<p>Definitely not! My GPA in freshman year was a 2.85 and in senior year was a 4.0, so some of the people I didn’t meet until the end of high school think I’m a perfect student, but anyone who knew me in elementary or middle school or the start of high school knows I’m far from it. I still consider myself a slacker and I procrastinate a ton, but I guess I’ll have to get used to not being considered a bad student anymore.</p>