Cheating? No.

I know National Examination stuffs are no longer hot, but well, I want to post it anyway.

I know cheating is common. I know cheating is not serious for a lot of people here. But, I was surprised anyway. Still am.

I'm surprised at how many people think it's trivial. That it doesn't matter. I'm surprised at how many people think that it's a justification for them to cheat just because others do. I'm surprised at... how people are not ashamed to admit that they cheated.

Wow. That surprised me the most. It's like cheating is not wrong, like cheating is okay.

No. It's not okay. Really.

First of all, to make things straight, this 'cheating' I'm talking about is the answer-asking, answer-giving,  answer-googling, answer-sharing-via-gadget whatever in a test (aka The Test-Cheating); because cheating is pretty broad (The Affair-Cheating, The Game-Cheating, Marking-Up-Proposals-Cheating, so on) but let's just close it to this case first.

I'm not being a hypocrite. I've cheated of course, in my younger days. I wanted to have a good mark so bad, I cheated. I even frowned at a guy when I'm in junior high, because he doesn't want to cheat. It dumbfounded me but I cheated anyway. I know what it feels to cheat. I know what I want from cheating. I know that it's way easier than studying till my brain goes disco.

But I stopped. I stopped cheating ever since I'm entered high school. I stopped cheating when I realized there are more things at stake when I cheated. When I realized that studying is not just a matter of good marks. When I realized that there are more things in me that I have to believed in. When I had a guilt trip at what am I doing praying to God before the exam if I were to cheat anyway?


Cheating is lying.

Lying to your teacher, lying to your parents, lying to your friends, and lying to yourself. Lying that you're doing a good job, lying that you've studied enough, lying that you're doing the right thing.

It's shameful and bad, and it pictures insecurities.

It shows that you don't believe in own capability to do those things yourself, that you're insecure if others don't help you.

I know that cheating is not necessarily done by people who are dumb, but I can say for sure that people who cheated are lazy.

Lazy and dishonest. Cheating is a shortcut; getting things you want without the exact effort it required.

The only thing you achieved from cheating other than the marks or achievements you don't deserved are less pain in the ass for being honest.

And those, my friend, are what I think about cheating.



Hypocrite. Idealist like you won't live long.

Idealist?

Idealist you say?

No. This is not about being ideal or not. This is a matter of principle. My principle is that I don't cheat. Not anymore. My principle is that, I don't want to lul myself with dishonesty. It hurts my conscience. It hurts my pride that I have to lower myself like that, that I have to be dependent over something trivial like grades. It lets my heart goes to a guilt trip, knowing that I don't believe in God I have prayed to, since I prayed to Him that I wish for doing a good job and getting a good mark; prayed-and-cheating-anyway is the lowest form of believing, I'd say. It's embarrassing that all the things I'll get from this later on are fruits of an evildoing called cheating. Oh God. I hate cheating. So bad.

And I didn't say that I hate people who cheat. Because I don't. Sort of.

It's cheating that I despised, and to cheat or not to cheat is a person's choice. I have no right to interfere with that. They have their reasons and I don't care.

Because I can't do anything about it. What I can do is prevent myself from cheating.

And maybe later on, teach my kids that cheating is not okay, that cheating is a form of dishonesty and dishonesty is bad.

I'm not going to start the cheat-corruption shit because no, as much as it was the same act of being dishonest, cheating has become a serious problem right about now, because people don't think it's bad anymore.

Wait. Maybe some people do, but they don't think it worth the fight. At least when it comes to corruption, no one agrees it's good and everyone thinks it should be punished severely.

Cheating?

Not so much.


You may say I'm a dreamer (not singing) for thinking that I could help it (or prevent or whatever), but I am here and I'm not the only person that thinks cheating is bad or the only person that won't cheat if they can help it. So there.




p.s. My high school is not exactly cheat-free (surprise surprise! ...NOT), but... I am relieved that people around me understand how I hate them and never in my high school life, asked me to give them answers on exams (anymore). Thank you guys. You know that it's hard for me to say no.