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18th Place

A college friend of mine posted a picture on Facebook this week. It showed an award ribbon that boasted, "18th Place." 
This 18th Place award comes courtesy of the 97th Annual Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg.
Now, I've not been to the Farm Show.  I imagine it to be somewhat bigger than the Washington County Fair that I went to every August. 
Sidenote: smelly farm animals + humid August = ick. Though they do have the very best homemade lemonade there.

I'm not sure what all goes on, but isn't an award for 18th place a little much?
"Is it really necessary?"  is what he captioned his picture with. 
Here's my comment:
"Yes. Because everyone is a winner. Welcome to 2013 in the USA where there are no losers."

And this is the reasoning that has granted us the people who audition on American Idol that cannot sing. Instead of having winners and losers we now have a place where everyone can feel special and important. 

Sorry to break it to you, kids, but there are winners and there are losers. It's a part of life, and if I'm being honest here, we are all winners and losers. There are some things that you're good at and other things that you aren't. It's called life. And life doesn't have to play fair.

I'm a winner at sales. I'm a loser as a secretary.
I'm a winner at baking. I'm a loser at decorating.
I'm a winner at....hmmm, can't think of anything else but I'm sure there's more. 
I'm also a loser at a lot more things too. In fact, I'm probably more of a loser than a winner overall if we add up every little aspect in life.

But I'm good with that. And the reason I'm okay with it is because when I grew up in  the 70s and 80s we had winners and we had losers. 
It helps build character.

Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2013 at 5:18 AM

    I heard a story on the Today Show that there is a movement, mostly among women, of "self acceptance" spreading in the US. No need to improve, or admit that we actually need to work in a certain area and strive to become better, more fit, more healthy, etc. Healthy competition and self motivation promotes discipline and striving to become the best at whatever we do. If we constantly work towards being our best, we will never settle with less. A family game night helps in our family...seriously! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Becky DoughertyJanuary 15, 2013 at 3:37 PM

    I agree 100%!! I try to teach my students that not everyone wins all the time, and that some of us are better at things than others. I don't think we're doing our children any favors by teaching them otherwise. In the real world, they will lose, fail, and not everyone will be nice to them. Life isn't always easy, and telling them otherwise sets them up for an even bigger failure!

    P.S. it was nice to talk with you last night! Thank you for the advice! :)

    ReplyDelete

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