another essay

here's another essay. i'd tell you my score on it, but i haven't turned it in yet. ;)

cheers.

-enna

November 3, 2008
Word Length: 221
TOPIC: It is better to be underrated by people than to be overrated by them.
It is better to be underrated by people than to be overrated by them. Both of them are compliments, but to be overrated can be embarrassing.
When someone thinks that you have abilities beyond what you truly have, it’s a compliment. For example, I have been told that I look older than I actually am. This is a compliment, to some extent. If I was fifty and someone gave me the same compliment, I would be extremely embarrassed and self-conscious. To be overrated is not always a good thing.
If you are underrated, however, it is possible to give someone a happy surprise when you reveal a talent or ability that they had not previously known about. In the book Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey, the heroine, Lessa, is able to save Pern with an ability previously unknown to any being other than the dragons. If it had been assumed by the others within Benden Weyr, a community of dragons and their riders, that Lessa had this gift, and she had not, it would have been disastrous for Pern.
To be underrated is usually not as much of a compliment as being overrated. However, if a life or many lives are held in the balance, an underrated person can save all those in peril with a previously unknown gift, talent, or ability.