A Letter of Deepest Gratitude to the One Kid Doing Worse Than Me in Class

To the One Kid Doing Worse Than Me in Class,

Words cannot express my sincerest gratitude for your contributions to our class this semester. Whenever I open my Canvas gradebook and see I’ve gotten significantly below the class average, I just feel so profoundly supported whenever I check out the spread and see that you’ve gotten an even worse grade. You have no idea what it means to me to be able to preface all of my scores by saying, “Someone absolutely bombed!” All my friends and family have heard about you, the person who does worse than me on all of the exams. I want you to know the extent of my appreciation and admiration. You deserve a win because you’re really eating dirt in class this semester.

No one has ever made me feel as safe and secure as you do. Sometimes I make these connections with students who end up dropping the class, but you never left me. You stayed there, and you kept failing exam after exam, but I guess this class is required for your major because you never went anywhere. You stayed by my side, and you kept doing worse than me on every assignment. You have no idea what that means to me. Even when the rest of the class excelled, you were the anchor, and in assuming that role, it was me who you kept from floating out to sea.

I feel so close to you but also still better than you, and that’s everything to me. What we have, it’s the closest I’ve ever come to love. It isn’t love, because I am rooting for you to fail and have invested all of my self esteem in your failure, but it’s really close. That actually describes a lot of my relationships really well, but maybe your relationships have gone even worse! That’s the kind of faith that I have in you. You allow me to look at my grades and say, “Well, it could be worse.” You make me feel seen, although thankfully it is your scores, not mine, that are visible under “lowest score.”

Love,

Claudia, D average