[c4mg]

Is this better?

Competition is something I love. I have always tried to be the best at whatever I was doing. I suppose many people are like me, but I think that I took it to a different level. I felt when I was younger that there was no point in playing a sport unless you thought that you could play it professionally, though I realize now that that was stupid. This has made me better in many ways, but always wanting to be the best has had its negative effects as well. I often felt like a failure if I was not the master but now understand that no one can do everything perfectly.
School was very easy for me until my rude awakening freshman year of high school. I thought I was able to handle it with no preparation, but I was definitely wrong. This turned out to be a positive experience though. Being able to handle defeat is a major part of life. My competitive nature left me lost, how did I do so much worse than everyone else? Unfortunately I handled it totally wrong, being too upset and feeling too sorry for myself to actually do anything about my grades for a good portion of freshman year. But eventually I realized that being upset didn’t change anything; I was just trying to make myself feel better. I was able to steadily improve my grades as high school progressed to a point where I made the Honor Roll as a senior. Because of my high school experiences I am able to handle defeat and come back even stronger when I encounter a challenge.