Competitive

You’re playing basketball with your college roommate.  You’ve got about two inches on him and you won the first game by a few points.  His feathers are ruffled and he’s starting to get angry but he agrees to a second game.  The second game starts and you make the unfortunate decision to block a shot.  He is so mad, he yells about how you’re only good because you’re tall and he storms away.  You stay and shoot around a bit before heading home, showering, and hitting up the café.  Your roommate comes up and apologizes, he explains how he is “so competitive he couldn’t play anymore,” he tells you that he didn’t want to let his competitiveness turn him into a jerk so he stopped playing.

You’re trying to get to know a girl.  The two of you are hanging out playing some scrabble, the game is still in its infancy but you’ve managed to lay down some pretty good words and you have a lead.  She quits right there.  She tells you that she is so competitive she doesn’t want you to see her lose.  She doesn’t want you to have a negative image of her, and she is so competitive she doesn’t want to play.

You’re trying to organize a game of capture the flag.  Your boy stares you right in the face and says, “I’m too competitive to play, I don’t want to be a jerk so I’m not going to play.”

Yo bro, you aren’t competitive you’re a sore loser!  When did being a competitive become synonymous with being a sore loser?

Competitive:  having a strong desire to compete.

Sore Loser: one who does not take defeat well, whereas a good sport means being a "good winner" as well as being a "good loser".

A competitive person wants to compete regardless of winning of losing; they just want to feel the thrill of competing.  A sore loser is a jerkface when they lose and they don’t want people to see that.  A sore loser doesn’t even want to compete because the risk of losing is too high.  A competitive person doesn’t care if he/she is going to lose, they’re just amped up for some good ole competing.

It infuriates me because being competitive should be a good thing.  A competitive person should be fun, they should be up for playing whenever, and they are the reliable 7^th for when you only have 6 to go to a tournament.  I understand that sore losers recognize the weakness within themselves, I understand that they are so disgusted by themselves that they must cling to another word, and so they have chosen to ruin and cripple the beauty that is competitive.  My message to these people: Stop demeaning the value of competitive by confusing it for being a sore loser.

The sore loser is the one who doesn’t want to go to Easterns because he thinks the team is going to lose every game.

The competitor is stoked he gets to play at the best regular season tournament of the year.

The sore loser doesn’t want to finish regionals after being eliminated from Nationals.

The competitor is fired up to play one last game with his team.

The sore loser doesn’t try out for the local elite club team because he has no chance of making it.

The competitor appreciates every second he gets to play against the best players in his city.