Twice the Age, Infinitely More Experience
Wednesday, July 25th, 2007
I have a subtle competitiveness that most don’t seem to notice. Or, if they do notice, they seem to call it something else more along the lines of “let the other person win.” Of course, that’s not actually the case, but in my long and eventful life, I’ve learned that when somebody is really good at something, and they are able to completely trounce you, you have much less incentive to continue competing with that person in that event. The problem here is that I like competing in events in which I do well, but if I do too well, whomever I am competing against will stop competing if they feel they have no chance at beating me. So often times I won’t go all out, which leads many people to believe that I am mediocre at best in many areas.
I lavish in the thought of people calling me mediocre, it makes it just that much easier to for me to impress people; making other people have low standards of you is very important to impressing them. That’s horrible life advice, but when it’s just you and a ten year old competing for the coveted title of “Best Diver at Jake’s Parent’s Marina’s Pool Party,” I pull out all of the stops. Allow me to explain.