You've heard the saying before, "nice guys finish last." The term is thrown around every now and then and the most typical response that people say is along the lines of "it's true" or "they do." However, I've never had a conversation with someone about why the phrase "nice guys finish last" is true or why it actually exists. It wasn't until November of 2015 that I actually found out the meaning of the phrase.
Our school usually has a temporary store set up just outside of our cafeteria for a single day in which CDs, vinyl, cassette tapes, DVDs, and even some VCR tapes are being sold. Unfortunately, I didn't get anything that day, but my friend Morgan bought herself "Nevermind"by Nirvana and "Nimrod"by Green Day. A couple of days later, I had asked her if I could borrow the CDs to throw on my iTunes library and she graciously let me do so. After uploading the CDs, I gave them back to her the day after that but once they were on my library, I immediately started listening to both albums in their entirety. I had heard a few songs from "Nevermind"before such as “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Breed” but I had only heard of one song from "Nimrod" and that was “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life).”
The opening track of "Nimrod" was titled, "Nice Guys Finish Last" and of course, I had never heard of the song before. After listening to the entire album, I found myself listening to that same song more and more each day but I couldn't figure out why. When I searched up the lyrics, I instantly related to what Billie Joe Armstrong wrote back in 1997 (a great year, by the way.) Lyrics such as "you're running out of gas, your sympathy will get you left behind / sometimes you're at your best, when you feel the worst" and "when you are the outcast, don't pat yourself on the back, you might break your spine" really spoke to me because I used to be someone just like that. After reading those lyrics, the song forced me to figure out the reason why nice guys finish last.
During high school, I was a kid who was always trying to get involved with my friends' priorities instead of accomplishing what I wanted to do for myself. I didn't have any control over what I wanted to do with myself because I was constantly searching for activities with other people. It wasn't until THIS YEAR that I actually realized what I've been doing and who I want to become.
As of August 14th, 2016 my iTunes library says "Nice Guys Finish Last" is the most played song on my library with 160 plays. Following Green Day is "Going Away to College" by Blink-182 with 75 plays. So needless to say, I really do love to listen to that song because I can relate to it so much. I even decided to take the artwork from the CD and get the song name "Nice Guys Finish Last" tattooed on my left wrist during Spring break this year.
As for why nice guys truly finish last, here's the reason. When you put other people's priorities ahead of your own, you are being nice to that individual or group of people, which isn't a bad thing, but you put yourself at the bottom of the list, hence the term "nice guys finish last." The word "nice" is a term that I don't take lightly - it is one of the most common ways for someone to politely tell you that you don't care for yourself. It's not wrong to care for other people, but when something like this becomes your main priority, you're not helping yourself at all - especially when someone says something along the lines of "you're so nice!" then, you can confirm that you're screwed.
It never hurts to do your own thing, especially by yourself. You'll find out that as you get older, you will need to accomplish more and more tasks without the support of friends or family, especially if you're in college, like myself. If you can show to other people that you can voice your opinion (even if you disagree about something) and stand on your own two feet, you'll look more confident, attractive, and willing to speak out about about that topic. As for the song "Nice Guys Finish Last," I encourage you to listen to it. This doesn't just go for guys, this goes for women as well because we're all human.
Enjoy.
man running in forestPhoto by 
