Among the many ways Diamond Bar High School students keep up their gold standard reputation they are so famous for includes more than just their hard work, drive or time management skills. They also possess the exceptional ability to tear themselves down emotionally.

Self deprecation is one of many attributes gained from a successful high school career and DBHS has yet again proved its excellency in this aspect of education. Keeping the standards high and competition higher, a truly exceptional student and future leader of this generation would be nothing without the constant expression of their own rightfully directed self pity.

A borderline A minus may be enviable to some, but actual good students must express to those around them how much they hate their life because this was barely an accomplishment. It is absolutely necessary to complain as much as possible to express how disappointed they are at those low scores. A 90 percent is significantly lower than a 100, which would mean that they clearly are not an accomplished student.

Laughing at their own misery is a surefire way to keep their sanity as well as their reputation among their peers. There might be some people out there who have it way worse than them, but it’s not like they are showing off. In fact, DBHS students are so good at this that many go as far as to never even accept a compliment. They are so humble that instead, they will exhort the naked, ugly and only mildly exaggerated truths about why they are undeserving and truly dead on the inside.

Rather than accepting the grades they have received for what they are, they go that extra mile of deprivation by dealing with the tedious task of asking their peers what they scored on every test in order to properly rank themselves. It’s good for them to constantly reinforce the truth that they’ll never get into college after scoring a 91 percent on their recent Calculus BC exam.

While some may deem this seemingly negative attitude as a poor choice, it is important to recognize the positive support system these students are building with each other. It is so great to see all these promising young men and women lifting each other up by ensuring that they have it way worse than one another. The camaraderie shared by comparing how much of a disappointment they think they all are forms a meaningful bond that cannot be broken.

However, academics isn’t the only aspect of a successful high school; students are remarkable at expanding this self deprecation into their social lives and extracurricular activities. The expression of their desire to “end it all” when they see a couple roaming the school hallways, reminding them that they are incapable of love and will probably die alone is exactly the kind of esteemed well-rounded mentality DBHS prides itself in.

It is important for teenagers to really understand the concept that potentially everything they touch could be turned into shambles but everything will be OK because nothing matters anyway. Being reinforced that no matter how hard they try, someone will always be better than them is exactly the kind of outlook teens should be striving for.