On Competition

Ashish. Aalok. Rohit.

Those were the names of my earliest competitors in life.

The Sahai boys. The sons of the local doctors and they happened to be in my elementary class growing up. They became my first guy friends in life as well. And they were smart.

They were real smart. They were the ones who always got 100% on everything. If they didn't get 100%, it was a big deal to them.

Early on I decided that I would be as good as them. And I was. I excelled at math and got the same scores as they did and once or twice beat them even. Imagine my joy. I beat one of the Sahai boys. I knew that I could do anything if I put my mind to it.

I remember finding out that all three of them would be skipping a grade and would no longer be in class with me. It was a blow. I was performing as well as them. I didn't have the prestige or family legacy in academics that they did and I didn't have parents or culture pushing me to get somewhere quickly either. I felt kind of dumped. Why didn't anyone notice that I was as smart as they were?

So after years of sort of wandering aimlessly academically and getting into loads of trouble because I was as bored as bored could be, I found my first boyfriend. He was smart. That's why I liked him. He was kind and he was fun to be around and he cared about his physique but really, he was smart and he helped me want to do better and be the best. We spent some of our date nights studying and doing math with one of his best friends.

You get the picture.

I love smart men. I love nerds. I love being a nerd. I love having something to strive for and someone to compete against. Of course, your only competition is yourself. But, my life experience says that if someone else is doing it better than you, you can do it better too.

Thanks, Lumosity, for your horrible math section which flooded me with memories of who I used to be and who I actually am.