Is it really that serious?

 Money makes people do stupid things sometimes. Not even money, just having high status, and when it comes to competition, people hardly ever see the “bigger picture” or aren't even in good faith. It's all about gaining experience and knowing how to improve. Nahh. Winning matters more these days, and people will do whatever it takes and disregard anyone who gets in their way. I hate that with a passion. And I learned early on just how much I hated it. It was 4th grade, and my teacher announced that the entire class was participating in an Achieve3000 competition, and the winner would receive a gift card or something. ( see, I can’t even remember that's how unimportant it was), So she took time out of the regular lesson so we could complete Achieve3000 lessons. The entire time, she was being very crabby, and if you were even slightly off task, she sent you to a buddy room. She was sending even the most well-behaved students to the buddy room for talking once. It really pissed me off because, as the week went on, we seemed to be doing more of these stupid lessons instead of our regular lessons. It seems to me she had a different motive than improving our non-fiction reading skills. After a full week of this madness, I went up to her and asked her if this was all she cared about. I got sent to a buddy room, and she never answered my question, which told me everything I needed to know. We did end up winning, and I think she threw us a pizza party, but still, I took away a very important lesson, and it's that sometimes people hide selfish intentions behind something that looks like “success” or “growth.” That week taught me that not everyone’s definition of winning is the same, and some people will sacrifice integrity, fairness, or even kindness just to come out on top. I realized that if winning means losing your sense of purpose or treating others poorly, it’s not really winning at all.

Since then, I’ve tried to remind myself that true success isn’t about the reward or the recognition, it’s about the process, the effort, and the way you treat people along the way. That experience in 4th grade might’ve been small, but it opened my eyes to how easy it is for competition and status to twist people’s values. And that’s something I never want to lose sight of, no matter how big the stakes get.

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