TeachedUp Comics: Never Would I Ever

From Collection 6 - Year Two, "Summer Help and Some Aren't"

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Mr. Culpepper speaks to his long distance friend via video conference and they discuss how spite spurs him on to continue his masters degree

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You know what... spite really is a great motivator. Sometimes spite is positively spun; sometimes not. If you've got folks speaking against you, working against you, or the like... go ahead and do great -- maybe not just to spite them, but hey... if a bit of spite is in the mix, is that such a bad thing? You don't have to go all out and say, "I told ya so," of course, once your awesomeness is forthcoming... but you'll know on the inside that you could say it. And that's often enough.

I remember I once had an advisor (during my Bachelor's Degree time) who responded to me struggling with certain concepts and skills, "Well, yes.. that's to be expected." The context? He was comparing me (as the only Physics Education major) and my abilities to the "pure Physics" learners who were my peers. My teaching focus (or maybe it was my low socioeconomic status? my status as a first-generation college student? who knows what else played into it) decreased my potential in his eyes, and it came out in how he advised me. So what did I do? I redoubled my efforts (and got myself a new advisor) and blew my classes out of the water. I even distinguished myself in ways that mattered to me more than a GPA: I made friends from other backgrounds and learned about other cultures and made a name for myself as a People Person (a skill I still value far above the ability to carry out any number of calculations).

In another situation around the same time, I recall taking an elective course. The professor claimed that "non-majors" taking the class never did well. I took this as a challenge, and banged out an "A" in the course.

Of course, I never really held these perceptions against those who voiced them - but I did act on them and use them to keep me moving forward (instead of letting them weigh me down). Ignoring glass ceilings is rarely an option. You're either cowed by them or you blast through them.

How has spite helped to spur you on? Let me know your thoughts at the TeachedUp Comics Fan Club!