I'm sure many of you are familiar with the stories of Mr Men and Little Miss. In the world of Mr Men and Little Miss, there lived Little Miss Perfect. In the school which I work in, many students are like Little Miss Perfect. In fact, even the teachers and staff resemble Little Miss Perfect. Of course the male teachers and staff would be known as Mr Perfect since they are "Mr" instead of "Miss". Let me now tell you a story of Little Miss Perfect and how her perfectionistic traits are expressed in her life.
After a long week at school, Little Miss Perfect woke up early on a Saturday morning. She prepared a healthy sandwich and a cup of delicious hot chocolate to start the day.
Little Miss Perfect thought of Little Miss Quick who was always able to accomplish so much within a short period of time. Hence, she decided to read a book while having a breakfast, just a small attempt to multi-task and not waste time.
After breakfast, Little Miss Perfect did her weekly revision, making sure that she read through all the information in her textbooks, notes that she made during lessons and online materials which her teachers provided for each subject.
Her goal was to do better than Little Miss Brainy in the coming examination and it was crucial not to miss out anything which was taught in class.
After studying for some time, Little Miss Perfect wondered what she should do when she took a break. She recalled that her mother nagged at her to clean her bedroom. Hence, she enthusiastically cleaned the floor and wiped the windows.
Her bedroom was so spick and span and she imagined her room to be as neat as Little Miss Tidy's.
When the weekend was over, Little Miss Perfect was happy that she did everything perfectly well and everything went so smoothly for her. Then, she happily went to school on Monday morning. As she was entering the school gate, she saw a group of classmates talking to one another. They laughed and joked with one another. Little Miss Perfect thought to herself, "What are they laughing about? Why did they come together without informing her? Why did they seem so happy without her? What are they talking about? Is it about her? Did she do something wrong?" Furthermore, she felt hurt that her best friends - Little Miss Sunshine and Little Miss Chatterbox - were hanging out with the group. Little Miss Perfect was left feeling somewhat uneasy and uncomfortable that morning. Not a very pleasant way to start the day for sure!
That day, Little Miss Perfect thought and thought about what her classmates may be thinking about her. She does not like it when she feels negative vibes from her friends. Some of them think that Little Miss Perfect is just too sensitive and there is nothing she needed to worry about. However, she was unable to calm herself down. She had a difficult time falling asleep and felt too anxious to go to school the next day.
She was worried that her friends may think that she is becoming like Little Miss Stubborn because she always insisted on doing things her way. She was also concerned that her friends may think that she is becoming more like Little Miss Scatterbrain because she was careless in the laboratory the other day when she broke a couple of test tubes which were meant for her experiment. She was anxious that her friends were staying away from her because she was like Little Miss Bossy in the way she interacted with them.
What do you think Little Miss Perfect should do?
Should she avoid going to school so that she would not have to experience possible humiliation from her peers?
Should she keep a low profile while she is in school so that nobody will notice if she made any mistakes?
Should she try to please her friends by doing whatever she thought would be the "right" thing to do?
Should she be extremely careful so she can avoid making any mistakes which will embarrass her?
