Students battle between Confidence Vs. Overconfidence

[Story by Addy Welz]

There is a line between confidence and overconfidence. Being seen as confident and being seen as overconfident can greatly change the way that the people treat a person.

“I think confidence is where you have a positive, proud feeling about yourself and your actions. I think you have strength and you have comfort in what you’re portraying to the world right, there’s no doubt at all,” said English teacher Amelia Speirs. “However, there’s still room for like other suggestions or outside voices, you’re not being stubborn you just you believe this. You have your sense of why you believe it, but you’re still open to other ideas.”

Confidence can be as easy as a person being comfortable in their own skin and having their own set of morals and beliefs while still being open to new ideas.

Confidence can also be affected by the people that a person surrounds themselves with. Oftentimes, people are more comfortable talking and sharing their ideas when they are in a group of people that they feel safe with.

Having a good environment can create better relationships and give a person the positive boost that they need to be successful.

However overconfidence starts a whole new problem.

“I believe overconfidence is when an individual or group goes into a situation assuming the outcome or assuming their own abilities compared to their opponents, whether better or worse,” PE teacher Michele Gibbons said.

Overconfidence relates to a whole new problem of people thinking that they are always right. When people think that they are always right it causes problems with them not being open to listening to new ideas.

“I think overconfidence can be dangerous because it can lead to sort of ignorance, especially when it comes to other people’s feelings and ideas,” said Speirs.

Overconfidence can oftentimes start issues on how people perceive them.

“When I see overconfident classmates it makes me see them as being self confident. There can be certain situations where it can affect the work being done,” said Junior Gracie Ty.

It is oftentimes a big question on why people choose to be overconfident.

“I think people act overconfident because they’re scared of looking. Dumb, for lack of better words. I think people are scared of what other people think of them. So I think they think of cockiness, overconfidence, almost arrogance, in a way, as a way of hiding behind the self doubt and a lot of the anxiety they may feel in a situation” Speirs said.

“I think people act overconfident to be more positive and to hide nerves or doubt,” Ty said.

Although there is not one reason for why people act overconfident it does change the way that people act and perceive each other.