Competitiveness

In the past, I was very, very competitive. It got to the point where I would get angry at the slightest thing that I found to be unfair, or when people were better at something than I was.

That made me not such a nice person to be around. :)

In any event, the point is that I spent so much time either trying to one-up other people or get angry about not being able to. I am sure it cost me some friends.

Thankfully I got better.

Granted, I am still not perfect at it, but now it has more to do with sports on TV than anything else.

I can now enjoy playing basketball for the fun of it and not get angry about missing a shot or losing a game.

Well, here is a little story that happened tonight that I find amusing from my new perspective:

I was at a surprise birthday party for a friend of mine (DH8's girlfriend) and was having a good time. At some point there was a balloon fight with long, ribbed, colored, balloons. Don't ask me how it got started but it did. :)

Anyway, toward the end it actually became a competition, as I perceived it, between me and CS.

Apparently he currently needs to one-up me for some reason, but that's ok. No biggie on my end. I just find it kind of amusing.

CS is an expert in Scottish swordsmanship and I have not done much swordplay. So it appeared that CS was attempting to assert his dominance in long, ribbed, colored, balloon fencing over me.

The funny thing is, I really didn't care. It's a fucking balloon. I don't mind being hit in the head with one. Not much speed you can generate with a balloon.

Anyway, towards the end he was getting several good shots in on me. Probably half of them hit me somewhere other than my balloon sword.

I said, "I guess my defense needs some work."

He said, "I had my eyes closed the whole time."

To which I replied (and was in fact true), "I wasn't moving my balloon."

*grin*

Not sure this came out the way it played in my head but I thought it was amusing.

Basically, if it was not a serious situation, I am not going to take it as a serious situation. If we were using real weaponry, damn straight I would defend myself. But we weren't and they were balloons. Big deal. :)

So long story short (too late now I know): I hardly get competitive any more unless a real situation arises. I take things for fun and if I win I win, if I lose I lose.

I do not need to defend myself when challenged in a non-serious (to me) situation. Guess that's why I am so laid back now. And I just find it amusing that people are wanting to challenge me. AZ mentioned it last week and I am noticing it more and more recently. I'll figure out what that means some other time.

Ah well, I think I have rambled on too much. :)

Touché!