Why do people keep trying to put me down or compete with me?

[Cara M]

I've been at college for a semester, and it seems like people are rooting for me to fail. Even my roommate has put down my effort as wanting to become a successful writer because I've been struggling in some of my major's classes, which is English. Ever since I told people what I wanted to do, they felt like they needed to "relate" to it by saying we all have the same goals when we for sure don't. People want to press this idea of competition to me, but the only person I want to compete with is myself. Ever since day one of university, people have put in this idea that having a future, being financially successful, and having a good career is competition that only a select few can have. I have been under stress, and on top of that, this guy that I had feelings for has been ignoring me and nowhere to be found when I need him. He's hooking up with another girl who's not even technically his "girlfriend", just someone he's sleeping with. She keeps subtly harassing me on Twitter by retweeting anything that mentions the guy and vice versa. She hasn't done it lately, but I'm tired of her trying to interact with me and make this a competition when she's the one who needs to move on and get a life instead of trying to force him to be in a relationship with her. I'm just minding my own business and staying good friends with him, but she will do anything in her power to make our relationship as shallow as possible. I haven't even done anything with him, and apparently he doesn't care about my feelings like he apparently does with hers, so why does she keep trying to annoy me when there's others who like him? Yet I'm somehow the easy target. I just hate people and wonder why they always try to make me a failure and encourage my downing and depressing myself.

[Neil]

Because they see it gets to you, you say you don't want to compete, but you're clearly 'keeping score'.

Unfortunately a lot of people like to be aggressive, instead of just asserting themselves(meaning they like to 'shine at the expense of...', instead of just being the best self they can be), often it's even promoted of course, in school, sports, and general education.

So basically for it to stop, stop following her on Twitter, stop investing in things you claim to not be interested in.

You're already saying the right things, now you just need to line that up with your actions, because you're still heavily invested in competing for this guy, and following your 'enemy' is never clever.

Focus on the positive, focus on the good, be constructive in your life, and ingore the bad all together, it'll go away if you stop feeding it.