High school is in a way just a mosh pit of pent-up emotions, hormones, and dumb ideas. So much of what people do in high school is competing with their peers. Whether that be in a formal contest with rewards, or just fitting in with social norms, high school students are constantly battling one another to become the best.
In every school, there are always rivalries between people to be the most popular, funniest, or smartest. What people don’t realize, or only realize when they’ve made it to the “top” is that once you’re there, you feel a looming sensation of emptiness that simply makes them say: “What now?”
The ironic part about the notion of being the best in a certain category is that it’s subjective. No matter how hard you try, there will always be people out there who simply don’t think the same.
Don’t get me wrong, being competitive isn't a bad thing. It’s actually a good way to get people to push themselves to their limits and overcome the obstacles they face. That feeling you get when you make the game-winning point, score a 100 on their last test, or even just get a compliment from the person they’re interested in, is what drives people to keep going.
The hope that someday they’ll be able to live through those moments is what compels ordinary people to go out of their way and struggle with life's little problems.
The problem I have with competition is that it puts a lot of pressure on the participants. Although it feels great to win a competition, one has to understand that for every winner, there are several losers. Especially when some of these competitions take place on an international level with upwards of tens of thousands of dollars at stake, the participants often are put under immense stress.
The added stress has negative consequences both on the mind and body and can sometimes lead to long-term damage. And it’s not only losing that causes stress. The whole process of competitions from just thinking about competing to going on to the final round, competitions are all-around stressful events.
In recent years, our culture has recognized it and in an attempt to mitigate the negative effects, many competitions have started to hand out “participation awards”. This brings me to another reason as to why competitions are damaging.
While the stress from competitions can be difficult, the lack of it in events with participation awards is even worse. These events falsely give participants the idea that they succeeded, but in reality, all they did was show up. It builds a dangerous narrative that one can do the minimal amount that is asked of them and still be considered a winner. If humans are to build a fully functioning society, simply showing up isn’t going to cut it.
Instead, competitions should work on recognizing more people and providing resources that will push participants to take action afterward. For example, even if your team lost the state championship games, your team should still be recognized for their hard work. This could be done by having the crowds clap for both teams after the match is over to commend them both for their hard work.
Next, for the most prestigious events, participants should get resources they can use to improve themselves. For example, the fourth-place winner at a national science Olympiad might not be eligible for a cash award, but perhaps they too could get a chance to network with an industry professional or take a tour of a renowned laboratory.
The details of what each participant gets can be up to the organizers of the events, but what’s important is that everyone is recognized so that every participant can feel like what they did had an impact. The event organizers should also try to instill a call to action within everyone that participated so that they can improve themselves and learn from the mistakes they made.
All in all, the members on a sports team could be advised on how they can improve their in-game skills, and the science Olympiad person could be told what was lacking in their project that could have been improved upon. Doing this will help us be more forgiving and compassionate to one another, to overall make people more skilled in their field of expertise.
Whatever ends up happening, making competitions a little bit more about everyone’s hard work will go a long way in establishing a good civilization with happy individuals.
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