Watch Your Step

The inspiration for today's blogpost came from 2 kids playing on the staircase. A seemingly innocent game of 2 sisters. Toddlers. Both of them raced up the stairs, and the older one of them won the race. The elder sister turned around and exclaimed: "I won!" The younger one reached not too much later, and said: "Yay, I made it."

While most of us find competition in most things everyday, there are other people who find it hard to keep up. Not everybody loves a competition, but everybody loves to win. If we're gonna make a competition out of every little thing in life then be prepared to feel disappointed all the time, because there's no way you could always win.

Think about losing. Sometimes it's disappointment with ourselves, but sometimes it's just plain hate and jealousy for the person who did better than you. How can we genuinely appreciate a congratulatory feeling for the winning party if such jealousy overtakes - or worse, overwhelms us? Indubitably, winning itself is a massive motivation for many to do well, to do better, and to do best. But how many people can stay level-headed when confronted with the sensation and bliss of winning, and not lose their principles on this arduous conquest for victory, even in life's daily challenges?

There will always be elites in the society, whether we like it or not. Let's not kid ourselves - they know they are better than us. Whether or not they let that get to their heads is another story altogether. I've seen smart people. Very smart people. People who are mostly right and rarely wrong. But they will be wrong. Sometimes. Not all the time. But when they're wrong, the instinct in them to win and be "right" pushes them so hard that they sometimes drown in self-denial, put up unnecessary arguments to justify their error, make excuses for their mistakes, or even insist that they are correct and challenge the fundamentals of knowledge that existed for centuries, only to ultimately find themselves in self-humiliating defeat. Do not doubt the existence of such people, because they are all around us everyday.

The desire to win; it's in all of us. We can't shake it out. It's intrinsic. It's inherent. The propensity for us to outdo someone else is etched in every human being, whether you like it or not. The only thing we can do about it is control it. Do you really think it feels better to win the silver medal rather than the gold medal in the Olympics? I doubt so. All of them participating, of course, are in the game for a gold. Nobody participates to lose. But when they don't turn out to be the best, they're back at this route again: Sometimes it's disappointment with ourselves, but sometimes it's just plain hate and jealousy for the person who did better than you. If they feel the former, good for them. The loss serves as an immense motivation to do better, to do better than the best. But if they feel the latter, they have failed to grasp a valuable life-skill. Instead of "You did good. You were incredible. I'll definitely do better than that next time and take that gold from you!" we have "I'm gonna fucking beat you the next time. Just you watch it." Turns out winning and losing can generate love and admiration or hate and animosity.

So to those who are still keeping scores, I hope you're doing it the right way, and not for the wrong reasons. I never believed in that, because for one I know there are tons of people out there that can outdo me in almost anything that matters, but I'm not bothered by the least bit.

Most recently in TeenWolf, Stiles said to Scott, "I want to help, but I can't do the things that you can. I can't." I hope you see and understand that I'm actually in the same position. There are things that I can't do even with the best of my abilities. To put bluntly, it's the lack of adequacy. So go on and do the things that you can. Even though Stiles can't do the things Scott can, he is always trying to assist in one way or another. And till the day that I can no longer render my service to you, I humble myself before you, to help you change the things you have to, guide the people you need to, and achieve the goals you want to.

Even superheroes need their sidekicks. For the record, none of them would have survived without the help of those who love them dearly enough to hang around despite knowing the difficulties of being a superhero, so... yup. I'm glad, because I made it so far. I didn't win, but I made it.