8/29/15 Winners Can Be And Usually Are The Biggest Losers?

    I have been obsessed with a song on youtube from Garfunkel and Oates, called "Loser."  It seems to be making fun of three separate individuals in the cartoon about being losers, yet they keep trying.  One of the characters in business, one is running, like in races, and the third in the dating world. 
    This, in my head, applies directly to Boy, who just started his new semester.  The song is actually very positive, you have to fail, you have to know how to scrape the bottom to know that even when you feel your worst, you can always pick yourself up and continue.  Boy has been texting me during the week, a little worried about his classes.  My best advice was just go in there and give it your best.  I would rather you try and fail, than to avoid a class because of fear.  Fear defeats most people, once you get yourself in a competitive mode you become a different person.  As the song says:

At least you’re not that guy watching from the side
Who thinks he’s doing better ’cause he wasn’t defeated
When he’s just a non-entity who never competed
You’re the one who’s out there reaching for something greater
And you know
It’s better to be a loser
Than a spectator

    Back in high school, I went to state competing in saxophone, my senior year I finally made it all the way.  It was a big deal back then, I even thought I might major in music, but that one year of success and the success was based on practicing with my instrument 20-30 hours a week, after all the school work, and homework.  Staying in the band hall until 10pm every night.  There were also the previous four years (I was allowed to compete with the high school students in eighth grade as well) in which I was beat by better students, and those years had the same amounts of time dedicated to learning several pieces of music.  You just keep trying, hope for the best.

    I could say the same thing when I came to UT.  I had gone to a junior college, and had come to the University with a 4.0.  Of course I thought I was hot shit.  I took a physics class which on the first exam had three questions, I could not answer one of them, I had no idea.  I went home crying, wanting to go back to my shitty small town.  My mom told me, just do your best in the other classes, see what happens.  Different professor helped following year that physics was only offered in the fall, still, physics was a C for me, and I only had 5 C's on my transcript.

    I have had my share of battles, mostly mental, but they are what make a person stronger.  Boy will learn, possibly from failing even, that the important thing is to keep getting up.  That is what ultimately matters.