Parents, teachers, friends, and mentors: competition is a myth, and I wish you would stop propagating it every breathing moment of life. You are the ones telling me that I have to “come out on top,” “be the best,” “never give up,” and so many other clichéd phrases that make me sick to my stomach. Why do you do this? Why do you make my life as a student so much more difficult than it has to be? Your motives are unclear, your words incomprehensible, your actions illogical. I wish I knew all the answers here, but I don’t.
If you are reading this, I want you to know that if you’ve ever felt as if the world were a competitive place, you are not alone. I want you to know something. That feeling of all-around, unchecked competition that you’ve felt is a result of your upbringing, not your apprehension of reality. What you felt derived from the myths broadcast far and wide by your own parents, teachers, classmates, friends, mentors, and anyone else. If this were truly the state of affairs, I would expect everyone I meet to be insanely competitive, but that is fortunately not the case. There are those I’ve met – and, I’m sure, those you’ve met – who have little or no interest in being so fiercely competitive and in seeking the vainglory of rising to the top. They have higher goals in mind. They come to school for the express purpose of learning something new, they take exams with a calm mind, and they neither get drunk with happiness nor throttled by sadness when they get good or bad grades. Why can’t we be more like them? What are they doing that allows them to rise above the competition while simultaneously remaining non-competitive?
After talking to several of them, I think I’ve hit upon their secret. They are competitive. They are indeed very competitive. But they only have one competitor in mind, someone whom they must always beat no matter what: themselves. They make no excuses, but rather suck it up, put pencil to paper, and work hard to keep improving, to better themselves, and to stop at nothing until they do. They fight to death with themselves, they come out on top over themselves, and they never give up until they’ve beaten themselves. This is their mode of operation. They take the bricks of insult hurled at them by others and construct an indomitable fortress. They are eternally peaceful and do not believe in jostling and pushing others aside for an ephemeral prize—they’d much sooner jostle themselves first.
Parents, teachers, friends, and mentors: I wish you could be more like the people who compete only against themselves. I wish you would tell me to compete against no other living being but myself. How can I hope to grow up to be without a trace of resentment, jealousy, or envy if you tell me that the world is a competitive place and that I should learn its ways? No, never. I’ve decided to cast off this burden of unconditional misery and shoulder a pack of perfect happiness. I’ve decided that I want to lead a life of kindness and unselfishness rather than one of meaningless hostility and unwarranted suspicion.
