Hi, and thanks for checking out my blog. I don’t know if you’ve been counting, but this installment marks my fiftieth blog. As in five-zero, fifty! Not to pat myself on the back or anything, but wow, that’s a lot. Speaking about bragging, today’s blog just so happens to be about bragging. Not my bragging, but my friend, Scarlett’s. Scarlett, unfortunately, faced some embarrassment when she pat herself on the back a little too soon.
Scarlett is generally a nice person. Sure, she sometimes talks about herself more than she probably should. And yes, Scarlett’s a little competitive when it comes to grades, even though she already is amongst the top students. But on the positive side, Scarlett is a good friend. She’s loyal to a fault. I suppose you have to take the good with the not-so-good, right? Recently, Scarlett ran into an issue when she bragged about her application to a special volunteer program at our local Nature Center… and then she wasn’t accepted. While I felt bad for Scarlett, I learned an important lesson from her experience: while it’s good to be confident, real achievers don’t have to brag. Actions speak for themselves. If you aren’t careful with your words, “bragging rights” might accidentally turn into “bragging wrongs.”
Here’s the story…
A tree-mendous opportunity
I’ve been to the Great Falls Natural History Museum and Nature Center (that’s a mouthful, so everyone just calls it the “Nature Center”) like a million times since I was little. OK, maybe not a million, but I’ve been a lot. A big draw of the museum is its aquatic center. There are tanks of fish, crabs, turtles, lizards. You name it. The outside of the Nature Center is also pretty cool. There’s a big pond full of fish, a butterfly garden, and plenty of birds. I’m fairly certain there are also snakes in the wild grass along the outside of the Nature Center, but I pretend the snakes go somewhere else whenever I visit.
Between the exhibits, aquatics, and wildlife, the Nature Center sees plenty of action. I guess that’s why they were looking for volunteers.
But enough background already. Let’s get to the real story behind this blog.
Recently, the Nature Center announced a special weekend volunteer program for middle schoolers interested in, you guessed it…nature. All you had to do was write an essay about why you would be a good candidate, get a teacher’s recommendation, and then make a presentation to the Nature Center’s Volunteer Committee about how you could help the museum.
Scarlett was the first person to announce she was applying for one of the ten slots. And she wasn’t shy about telling everyone. Her behavior wasn’t a big deal. At first.
Friend-ly competition
While I enjoy going to the Nature Center, I had no plans to apply for a volunteer position. Reading and writing stories about nature is more of my speed. But our other friend, Anna, who loves animals, told us she was also applying for a volunteer spot.
Initially, Scarlett and Anna discussed what they would write about in their essays. Thankfully, they were each interested in different areas. But then, I think Scarlett may have let her nerves get the best of her. She started getting a little bit competitive. We all got a first glimpse of the potential for Scarlett’s bragging wrongs at lunch a few weeks ago:
“Anna, we probably should just focus on our own materials without sharing any information anymore,” Scarlett said. “We wouldn’t want to accidentally influence each other, right?” Scarlett’s request seemed innocent enough.
Anna nodded, without saying a word. It was hard to tell if Anna agreed or if her mouth was stuck shut from the school-safe peanut butter sandwich she had been eating.
Either way, neither Anna nor Scarlett said another thing about the Nature Center volunteer program from that point on. But the silence didn’t last forever.
Straight from the horse’s mouth
A couple of weeks ago, the volunteer applications were apparently due. At lunch, Scarlett told us all about the essay she’d submitted for the program.
“I wrote about how I could help the Nature Center upgrade its butterfly garden,” Scarlett said. “And I proposed doing research on the effectiveness of their pollination practices.” She nodded confidently and seemed quite sure of herself.
“That sounds hard,” I said. Her plans sounded like a lot of work to me. I glanced over at Anna, but she appeared to be concentrating on the overstuffed wrap she was eating. Each bite of food seemed to get stuck in her braces. Scarlett wasn’t paying attention to anyone or anything. She just kept talking.
“It’s not really that complicated at all, Noodle. I’m going to give the Nature Center ideas for how they can make a ‘Pollinator’s Paradise.’ That’s the title of my essay. Genius, right? I mean, how could they not accept me into the program? I’m pretty sure that I’m a shoo-in for one of the slots. I mean, no one has said anything to me yet. But I think I nailed it with all my materials. So, yeah, I’m pretty much a lock.” I smiled and nodded politely.
All I could think about was how this sounded like a bragging wrong. Although Anna didn’t say a word, I could’ve sworn she rolled her eyes before going back to picking out the pieces of the sandwich stuck in her braces.
“Well, I hope you and Anna both get accepted into the program,” I said. I glanced over at Anna, who was still concentrating on clearing her braces. Anna just said “mmhmmm,” but didn’t add anything more. Scarlett didn’t ask Anna about her submission, and Anna didn’t volunteer any information. I decided not to press the issue. Who needed to add onto Scarlett’s potential bragging wrongs?
The cat’s out of the bag
Fast forward to lunch earlier this week. Scarlett was unusually quiet. Anna, however, was talking a mile a minute. Her bubbliness was even more impressive because she was able to talk while eating pizza for lunch. For those of you who have had braces, eating pizza is a nightmare. (Unless you cut it with a knife and fork—though some say it’s a culinary crime if you use anything but your hands for pizza.)
Once our friend Tracy finished her pizza (with her hands), she asked, “Hey, did you guys ever find out about that volunteer program?” Anna perked up while Scarlett’s face went…scarlet. Anna was the first to speak.
“Umm, yeah. I got one of the slots.” We clapped Anna on the back and cheered.
“I, uh, didn’t get a spot,” Scarlett said in a voice that was not much louder than a whisper.
“Oh, that stinks, Scarlett. I’m so sorry for you. But there’s always next time, right?” Tracy put her arm around Scarlett. That only seemed to make Scarlett more uncomfortable. Scarlett looked like she wanted to crawl under the table. No one said a word, but we all knew Anna had earned bragging rights. And Scarlett, well, she sadly got bragging wrongs.
Trying to take the focus off Scarlett, I asked Anna what she would be doing for her volunteer work. Anna lit up with the question.
“Well, I’m going to help with Touch-Tank education, and hopefully food prep and tank maintenance for the aquatic animals. Oh my gosh, at the end of my presentation to the Committee, I accidentally said, ‘tank you very much for your time.’ Everyone laughed, so I guess my play-on-words turned out to be a good thing.” Anna smiled shyly.
Before we could ask any more questions, the bell signaling the end of the period rang. Scarlett bolted out of the cafeteria. Saved by the bell, it seems.
Elephant in the room
If I had to guess, I think Scarlett probably felt embarrassed about bragging and then not getting a volunteer slot. But that’s one of the dangers of bragging. Bragging may not cause people to see you in a positive light. It might even trigger negative reactions and emotions. In other words, bragging often has the opposite effect of what was intended.
There’s a fine line between feeling proud and happy about an accomplishment and sounding like a show-off when you share good news with others. A lot goes into how you say it.
I learned that there’s no substitute for being genuine and sincere. When you put in the hard work and achieve success, you’ve earned the accolades. But if you’re hoping to gain admiration from others by boasting or you’re trying to make someone else look bad, perhaps it’s best not to share. You don’t want to earn bragging wrongs from arrogance.
I will say that it’s possible Scarlett didn’t realize she was bragging and was simply proud of her work on the Nature Center application. If that was the case, I guess Scarlett had the right to be crabby and feel stung about not getting a volunteer spot (puns intended).
Until next time, be your best you.
Do you have any stories about learning an important lesson from an experience? Please share with them me in the comments section!
