Possibly this topic annoys me simply because I know I used to be an academic snob -- and maybe people still think I am, I don't know, but at least I'm seeing it in people now and know how they act and what annoys me. Maybe I'll be able to stop myself. I'm friends with these people. I'm one of those AP students... one of those people in mostly advanced classes. Perhaps academic snobbery should be expected. However, we're all second semester seniors. Maybe that's why I've only just noticed it. I've gotten lazy, senioritis has set in, and all I want is for graduation to be tomorrow rather than May 30th. I guess my friends haven't followed me on this road. For instance:
We get vocabulary lists for English that we have to memorize. On this list we had "parlay" (to maneuver an asset to greater advantage) and "parley" (a discussion with an enemy over the terms of a truce). We were studying these words in a group, and "parley" came up. After the definition was given I said: "That's the Pirates one!" Referring to Pirates of the Caribbean. They FREAKED OUT. "NO," they said, "in Pirates they use PARLAY. They say PARLAY all the time!" Me: *stare* "Yeah. But what do they want when they say 'parlay'? To discuss with the enemy."
Geez. That's all I meant. Don't even get me started on what happened when "wrest" came up. Me: "To grab!" Friends: "NO!! It's to grab HARSHLY!"
...O____O It's a multiple choice test. I am not going to have to choose between "to grab" and "to grab harshly." And then they forget to do something, right, and they absolutely freak out. Homework not done? OMG I AM GOING TO FAIL AT LIFE. On a different vocab thing in English, when we have dictionaries and must look up words and decide between four synonyms... "Are you SURE that one's right? Are you really extremely positive? IS THE DICTIONARY RIGHT?" Like if they get one wrong they're going to fail the class. I'm not sure if those worksheets are even graded.
And again with English, in the morning I was flipping through the book we've been reading and one of them walked up to me and said, "Oh my gosh, you're only THAT FAR? Hahaha! You had the whole weekend!" I stared at her. "Um, no?" I said. "I was just flipping through...?"
What does it matter anyway? They shouldn't gloat about what they've done. No matter how academically snobbish I was, I don't think I ever gloated. Maybe I wanted to sometimes, but it's just not in my nature to say so. It's so annoying. Come on, guys, we're second semester seniors. I think we're able to relax a little bit. We can get one answer wrong, we can flip through a book if we want to, and we don't need to be overly specific in our answers. Making fun of people for grades is something for middle schoolers.
