Everybody wants to be the winner. Winners get the glory and pride, the victory and the applause, the admiration and their place on the pedestal. Only winners get their names engraved into people’s mind. On the other hand, what do losers get? Shame, humiliation, side glances from others… . And yet to me, losing has more worth than winning. What opened my eyes to this was an incident that happened 5 years ago.
When I was 12, I was invited to join the badminton school team. I would like to say that I got in because of my spectacular badminton skills, but the truth is the school team was one person shorthanded. Yes, I was chosen because the coach saw some potential in me, but the main reason was that they needed one more person to just register …show more content…
Stepping out of the court, I pushed past my teammates and left the badminton hall. My tears splattered on the floor where my shattered pride and dignity lay. How could I not have even scored even a measly one point? I couldn’t bring myself to lift my head.
But later, my coach explained to me. He had arranged me to play singles, in hopes that I would meet the opponent I had played against. Knowing that I was one of the weaker players in the team, he had ‘sacrificed’ me to play against the stronger opponent, in a bid to secure more wins for the overall team.
Our school won that day.
For a year or two, the incident was resolutely chucked to the back of my mind. After all, who would like to constantly be reminded of their utter failure and defeat. However, I gradually came to terms with it. Yes, I had failed, but my loss had enabled my team to win. I not only had a deeper understanding of the concept of “lose the battle, but win the war”, but I had also become more resilient. My fall to the bottom had only made me stronger to climb up towards success. Until now, the memory of this match is like an exquisite bottle of wine, rich with flavours through the passage of time, and each sip of reflection is a bittersweet feeling of
When I was 12, I was invited to join the badminton school team. I would like to say that I got in because of my spectacular badminton skills, but the truth is the school team was one person shorthanded. Yes, I was chosen because the coach saw some potential in me, but the main reason was that they needed one more person to just register …show more content…
Stepping out of the court, I pushed past my teammates and left the badminton hall. My tears splattered on the floor where my shattered pride and dignity lay. How could I not have even scored even a measly one point? I couldn’t bring myself to lift my head.
But later, my coach explained to me. He had arranged me to play singles, in hopes that I would meet the opponent I had played against. Knowing that I was one of the weaker players in the team, he had ‘sacrificed’ me to play against the stronger opponent, in a bid to secure more wins for the overall team.
Our school won that day.
For a year or two, the incident was resolutely chucked to the back of my mind. After all, who would like to constantly be reminded of their utter failure and defeat. However, I gradually came to terms with it. Yes, I had failed, but my loss had enabled my team to win. I not only had a deeper understanding of the concept of “lose the battle, but win the war”, but I had also become more resilient. My fall to the bottom had only made me stronger to climb up towards success. Until now, the memory of this match is like an exquisite bottle of wine, rich with flavours through the passage of time, and each sip of reflection is a bittersweet feeling of