After qualifying for president’s club last year, when I found out what the criteria would be for this year, I immediately started crunching the numbers to see if I might get in again (I didn’t really realize I’d become that person, but I started getting addicted to the bragging rights, the prestige, and the free luxury trips). And based on the numbers I did calculate, I would qualify again, but I wasn’t really sure if I’d make it… I always feel like there’s some force out there going against me that is going to randomly make objective qualifications based on the actual data suddenly subjective and based on their own personal opinions. So when they announced my name on stage tonight, my first thought was “wait, those numbers were actually lower than what I calculated.” Then, my next thought was, “fuck them all,” as I walked on stage, to everyone who either doesn’t think my contributions have mattered or is against my success not only here, but overall.

I’ve known this since my middle school years when I was known for being super friendly and kind to everyone that it doesn’t matter what you do or how kind or selfless you are, but there will always be someone out there who not only does not like you, but wants everything bad for you and is even out to sabotage you. There will be people out there who will try to twist your words and actions into something that was never truly your intent. I was recently reminded of this with an unfortunate situation at work, and as I was told by someone close to me in the organization, “You are going to rise above it.” I have, and I’ve done it quietly and without much fuss. But that does not mean that when I succeed and can speak to my successes that I won’t be thinking about them in the back of my mind in glee, knowing that I’ve proven all of them wrong. Screw the haters.