Tests..

Tests; those papers full of torturous questions that make us sweat through summer afternoons in eerie gym halls, and result in major celebration once they’re finished, whether we’re drowning our sorrows or celebrating a victory. GCSE’s, A Levels, and even primary school SAT’S, we’ve been tested our entire lives, informed of how smart we are in relation to the guidelines our government gives. Teachers pressure us constantly to maintain their standards, parents want us to live up to their expectations, and don’t even mention the pressure we place upon ourselves to be everything the world expects us to become.

But, tests are not restricted to exams in school, and the answers aren’t always so easily given by exam boards. Tests are used in everything. Parents test their children to see whether their growing into the people they want them to be. Children test their parents to see whether the teacher is following the values they’re teaching. Friends test one another to see how far their friendships can be stretched. Relationships are consistently tested and fought over when fighting for superiority. Tests are everything in our lives. And what most people don’t realise is that we are the ones creating them most of the time. We prolong contact with a person simply to test how far we can push them before we lose them completely. There is something in human nature that causes us to consistently push those around us to prove that they love as much we want them to. Especially when it comes to those romantic relationships that we desire, whether we’ll admit it or not. Every relationship has to have give and take, but there are always tests, always trials laid out between every couple. And I think that it can quite often come down to trying to prove who loves whom more. I think it’s more than likely that this is usually the more feminine partner, because they often have an inner desire to be loved unconditionally. If they love a person perhaps their need for love consumes them, and maybe it makes it impossible to accept that they are loved in return; which is where the tests begin. Just one little push at a time to find one little flaw that will prove their theory right; that they will never be loved as much as they want to be.

The same can be said for almost any relationship, a friend, a parent, a sister, a boyfriend or a girlfriend. Tests are a part of every life, whether they’re the exams that are apparently going to shape the rest of our lives, or whether they’re just to prove your right. I think peoples need to test each other is based in their insecurities, they feel the need to make other people waver so that they don’t have to face the possibility of making a mistake themselves. I don’t feel that this is something that can be changed, and I think that is inherent in a person’s personality. But, it is interesting to look at other people’s, and our own, relationships to see how far we push people to test them.