A For Effort
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A For Effort

And the winner for participation is........

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A For Effort
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The participation generation. Everyone's heard of it. Everyone knows how annoying it is. On the off chance that you are unaware of what the participation generation is, let me explain. This generation is focused mainly on everyone's favorite millennials (insert sarcastic tone here). It’s a specific group of us that are about 20-26 years of age. This is the group who received participation trophies when they didn’t win. Now I don’t know about you, but I think giving a trophy to kid who just showed up is BS.

When I was five years old, I was on a soccer team and I absolutely hated it. I only played in one game (and by played I mean actively turned away from the ball any time it was near me). At the end of said game I received a medal….for literally having a tantrum the entire time... as well as the rest of my fellow five year olds even though they actually played the game.

To be fair I held on to that medal as if my life depended on it, but that was the first and only participation trophy I ever received. After that, I was in a horse show and I came in 6th place but I did not receive any kind of ribbon or reward for just showing up, which is what I thought would happen based on my expereince in just showing up to my soccer game. I went home cried and learned that everyone can't win all the time. Since then, I've worked my hardest to actually earn the trophies and awards that I have received.

You may be asking yourself, "Emilee, why do participation trophies make you so heated?" Well, I'm glad you asked! My reasoning for being so aggravated about participation awards is this: why should we get awarded for being mediocre? Trophies and awards should be reserved exclusively for the people who worked the hardest to win them in the first place. Picture this if you will, let's say that you have 10 people competing for 1 award. Even though only one person gets it, you still have 9 other people who are trying to be the best in whatever field it was they were competing in but, if you have 10 people competing for something and they all know that they will get something for participating no matter what, then you have 10 people who are okay at whatever it is they were competing for. I don't know about you, but I would rather have 10 people great at something instead of having 10 people okay at something.

Don't just reward your kid for showing up. Teach kids that it's okay to lose. Teach them to try harder next time. Everyone cannot be a winner all the time. As harsh as it sounds, someones gotta lose ya'll.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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