If you ever played a sport growing up, you know exactly what a participation trophy is. Whether it was soccer, basketball, softball/baseball, volleyball, etc., if your team did not get first or second in a tournament, then you received a participation trophy.

This was supposed to be an applause to your hard work. All the way up until fifth grade, tournaments I was a part of were still passing out participation trophies and medals. What did I do every time I received a new one? Put it on the shelf and eventually threw it in the trash or donated them because there was no significant memory from it.

The thing is, the medals meant nothing to me. Even if I worked my absolute very best along with the rest of my team, there was a team better than us and they earned their placing fair and square. Instead of being okay with how we performed and accepting a participation trophy, I was raised to push harder and use times of defeat to strengthen and better myself.

Kids do not always recognize this because they are young, but we are teaching the next generation that they don’t have to work their hardest to receive a reward and everyone must be treated the absolute same. If we teach them this when they’re younger, they will live the whole first part of their life with this mindset. From age six to age 10, the brain begins developing a more mature and logical way of thinking. This is the prime stage to begin teaching kids that nothing in life that is worth something comes easy. It can be unfair, but sometimes when we believe we deserve something, someone else believes it more. Participation trophies make it difficult to teach this lesson.

A man, whom I have heard many childhood stories about, once shared about the time he brought home at a participation trophy when he was eight years old and showed it to his dad. Immediately after his dad saw "participation" written on the front plaque, he took it into his own hands and carried it out the garage. Later that evening he brought it back inside and handed it to the eight-year-old boy. The trophy now read, “You lost” on the front plaque, and the dad told him next time he can do better. The boy did, and he is living a successful life leading one of the top rated University marching bands in the country. His story proves that when you are pushed to test your absolute limits, you can achieve goals you never deemed reachable.

All in all, I believe that as we grow up we should be told that we are doing a great job, but that we can keep pushing ourselves to achieve even more greatness. If we hold ourselves back and teach our siblings and kids that just showing up is enough, then how will they learn to push themselves to be their best in academics, in a work environment, or in a game of soccer?

Life lessons often start early, and they develop us to become the best we can be in everything.