Welcome! To those returning, it’s great to be back in St. Louis, right? To those who are here for the first time, it’s great to be in St. Louis. Just you wait and see.

As we start to get involved in school again, buying our books and receiving our syllabi, remember something that summer might have stripped from your memory: the competitive spirit that is at the heart of Wash. U. and some of the dangers it can bring.

Since we go to a pretty good school, everyone had to work decently hard to get here. We like to compete, academically or otherwise, and we like to win. That isn’t to say that we wouldn’t help another person when they need it, and most of us probably wouldn’t steal another’s lecture notes (despite the horror stories), but even so…winning is part of the culture here.

I don’t claim that competition is a bad thing. In fact, I believe the opposite. Competition and the desire to be better than others are what provide a lot of drive, especially when the tedium of school starts to set in.

Competition runs our country, from politics to business, weeding out the weaker and making sure only the best survive. Even biologically we are wired to win to make our lot in life the best we can.

There is nothing wrong with competing with each other, but it can be dangerous when that competition bleeds into other parts of your life where it shouldn’t be. In your personal life, you do not need to compete and you do not need to win.

In your friendships or your relationships, you shouldn’t always compete. There are moments in life that require mutual understanding, respect, care and support. In a conversation in which you are swapping stories, you don’t always have to one-up someone. Sometimes you should help out the friend in a class and focus on making sure he does well, rather than concerning yourself with being at the top of the curve.

I like to win; I like to win A LOT. Again, nothing wrong so long as I keep it to things where winning is the objective and I don’t hurt others in the process. Like school or sports, videogames on occasion. But if I let that competitive drive take over my world and get into parts that it isn’t welcome, I will alienate my friends and probably wont make new ones.

I’m not perfect—sometimes my competitive side does bleed over and I piss off my compatriots. It never causes an immediate blowup (someone might call me out on it), but it causes a steady distancing, a feeling of distrust, as though you don’t care about the other person. For me, it is an ongoing internal conflict, battling my constant desire for victory, which I don’t even know if I’ll win.

So keep in mind the dangers that competition can pose: the anger that it can create if you don’t curb it sometimes, the annoyance that can ferment because you can’t, once in a while, let it go.

By all means, compete. Try to be better than everyone else and kick yourself when you aren’t. It’ll probably make you a better student and more successful at Wash. U. Just be aware of the dangers of constant competition, and when you can leave that competitive spirit behind for a little bit, do it.

 

Daniel Deibler is a sophomore in Arts & Sciences. Write to Daniel Deibler at [email protected]