Winning: My Drug of Choice

Being a champion is one of the greatest feelings someone can have.  It doesn't matter if it's a YMCA league or a Superbowl. I've competed in a lot of sports throughout my life: football, basketball, track, cross country, flag football.

I  remember my first championship like it was yesterday. It was a hot July day in Richmond, VA and I was running in the AAU state track & field championships, I was 10 years old. I wasn't the best, my teammate beat me in every race we ran that season except for that one. 2-mile race in what had to be at least 100 degrees. Somehow I pulled the win out and had my first championship.  Since then I've won 2 flag football league championships and that's it. Not the largest of championships, never a high school state championship and I was never good enough to compete at a higher level. However, the euphoria I felt then as a 10 year old was unparalleled. It's such a high, it takes you to another place and makes you feel like you can do anything.

Winning, is like a drug. My drug of choice.

Once you taste it, nothing can ever replace it. And there inherently lies the problem with competition, with winning. It's the reason college coaches work 20 hour days for 11 months out of the year. It's the reason why men and women argue, winning an argument is more important than winning with the relationship. It's the reason why I'm pushing 30 and still play flag football and video games.

Sometimes I wonder if winning means different things to men and women. When you watch TV and you see this athletes and they say the cliche "Winning is Everything".  If you've ever won, you understand that it is not a cliche. All of the practice, the preparation, the pain. Putting yourself through physical and mental hell, just to be a half step quicker, a half second faster, jump an inch higher, tire slower.  The extra practice that allows you to know the playbook in your sleep, not only knowing what you should be doing but where every single one of your teammates will be doing as well. 

Now, I've learned to have fun when playing and to tone down my competitiveness but let's be honest. It's all a facade. I don't care if it's monopoly, I'm in it to win.

Winning: My Drug of Choice