BELLAIRE • MEMORIAL • RIVER OAKS • TANGLEWOOD • WEST UNIVERSITY

The catalyst of competition

By David Liu, age 16 | May 27, 2024

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FROM SHORTFALL TO TRIUMPH David Liu, a junior at The Kinkaid School, reflects on how competition has helped him rise to the challenge.

I was playing horribly. The ball felt unusually heavy in my hands, and my arm felt awkward and tense as I missed jump shot after jump shot. It wasn’t my day. With a few kids coming and going, we found ourselves with an odd number of players, and we decided to do a pick-up game first. We chose team captains, and they stood apart, picking the rest of us one-by-one. Some people’s worst fear is to be picked last. I wasn’t picked last; I wasn’t even chosen. A sense of defeat and humiliation overwhelmed me. It didn’t help that just a week earlier, I had learned that I hadn’t qualified for this year’s U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad; my exam score was just below the cutoff. The disappointment from the exam results compounded my disappointment in not being chosen.

I thought about leaving, but that meant leaving without the basketball, which was mine. So I sat back against the wall and watched the pick-up game. Gradually, I found myself standing and clapping for my friends’ team, giving tips when I could and making jokes when I couldn’t. As the game progressed, I couldn’t help but smile when I saw how other people were smiling and laughing at what I was saying. Ironically, I found myself enjoying watching the game as much as playing it.

Winning or losing is not everything. When I learned that I was four points short from the cutoff for the U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad Exam, I was devastated. Looking back now, after three hard months of learning and disciplined training, my AP Chemistry class is no longer a challenge for me. My confidence has allowed me to take on more advanced work with other AP classes such as Calculus BC. Competition builds my inner strength, grit, and confidence. I will embrace all the possible opportunities – win or lose – of competition, so it can help me build a better version of myself. Striving matters more than mere success or failure.

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