Competition and the competitive feel

 Competition and the competitive feel. 

This is one of the feels life offers. .

Competition is competition - healthy or unhealthy because there is really no set gauge to measure how healthy or unhealthy it is. We can only try tho'

The higher one goes, the higher the level of competition.

In the primary school, the competition is lower as there are enough secondaries to go around, although smarter students don't look at that but focus on mastering the primary school curriculum and it helps solidify their success when admitted into the secondary schools.

In the secondary school, the competition is more intense, there are more challenges, more people from different spectra of the society are in the same school - the cool, the thugs, the gentle, the stubborn, the dull, the smart, the clowns, the bullies, the serious ones. To be a champion requires being on top of a lot of feels, overcoming the taunts of scorners, the jibes of the losers and the annoyances of the bullies. Studying becomes more intense in order to scale Waec, Neco, Jamb and post-jamb exams. This is also the time peer pressure becomes real, if 80% of your mates prefer to play football and play station rather than study, it becomes more harder to study because majority of the sentiments favor play. This tests discipline, if your mates decide to boycott a class and you decide to do otherwise because you are the serious type then you should be ready to receive the fury of your colleagues for backstabbing. Peer pressure rarely works for something related to studying because studying is really not fun except you're the book type but tends towards skipping classes,troubling teachers, jumping fences, abusing and cussing people. If all the girls in your class especially the bold and sassy ones have boyfriends, the shy ones will definitely feel left out, reading when you feel left out is kind of a challenge because your mind will be off the book. The easier way will be to replace the feel by seeking for a boyfriend and joining the league of the girls with girlfriends at the expense of high grades while the harder way will be to study despite the feel and gain the high grades with the hopes that your boyfriend will come at the right time. 

Those are the challenges that when scaled through give you an entrance into the tertiary institution. 

The competition in the tertiary institution is on a whole different level, there are adults - few smiling - who are lecturers, there are senior students who know the ins and outs, there are different calibre of people you're probably seeing for the first time in your life, schooling in a public school means that you can meet someone whose parent holds a respectable position in society and also meet another person who grew up in the slums. Totally different lifestyles and influences. 

Everyone is trying to make a point in the university so don't be amazed if you see different shades of recklessness. 

First, you realize that even though you were really brilliant and made all distinctions in your o'level results, you will still see people who made all As, if you had an incredible jamb score that nobody ever had in your secondary school, you would realize that many other freshers had similar or even better scores, if you thought that you were the alpha male in your own house and streets, you realize that many alpha males abound, this automatically makes you either scared or extremely competitive because you know that you can't afford to rely on past achievements. 

The peer pressure is more pronounced, the bullies are more in number, the smart ones are more in number, if you are a troublemaker you will meet more excellent ones, if you are talented you'll meet well-versed ones. No one worships you and brings food to your room like it happens in your house, heck you might even be the one trying to cook for your intimidating roommates. 

Your smartness could even be a stumbling block if you are not wise about it, if your primary and secondary school teachers overlooked your faults, your lecturers might not be that benevolent and would not. Your book smartness cannot save you from a realistic problem except you develop a realistic street smarts approach or look for someone who has to bail you out.

Those who are able to beat many of these challenges are those who end up with their heads up high. 

It never ends, you get into the national youth service and you realize that soldiers who don't have half your academic achievements are bossing over you, again you either tackle the situation head-on with realistic intelligence because grammar cannot help you or you just do their bidding if found wanting. 

Now, to the real world. 

In the real world, competition with other people can wear you off and discourage you. You can't compete with someone who has been doing an activity for 10 years because time is for that person, you might be smarter, you might be sharper but that person is still more experienced. This knowledge should not discourage you but empower you to compete with yourself.

Men are in sizes, what some can achieve in 2 years, it will take 5 for others to achieve, it will then be folly to keep comparing and competing. 

Competition with yourself means that you follow your own path, go through your challenges, and grow through it. If you earn lesser than your junior, it wouldn't matter because you walk different paths, be proud of your achievements. 

Your losses should not make you lose hope, it is true the world celebrates winners but it is because they scaled challenges which are not easy, even the losers will allude to this. The secret is they competed with themselves and when the challenges came, they won. 

It is hard to celebrate the wins of others when you are losing, it is a reality everyone is privy to, then win at what you can to enjoy the same feel. 

We can't take our eyes off those who win, we envy their successes and would wish we were in their position but truth is they never stop competing with themselves. They are not motivated by anything external as everyone sees the bleak external situation but are motivated and empowered from within. 

Healthy competition might be competing with oneself, which makes you humble enough to learn what works for others, apply to your own life and see if it works. 

Unhealthy competition might be focusing so much on the positive airs and auras winners receive and try so hard to reduce the impact so you can feel better, it often backfires negatively. 

The competitive feel is either a blessing or a pang.