i follow my friends to the field
we watch as she scores
we cheer and she bows
the others, they frown and dip their heads
we won, they lost
Kate
Compete
Life is a competition
One big competition
For food, love, happiness, jobs
To see who is the happiest and who is living their lives the fullest
no one ever really goes anywhere though
We are all stuck looking at the same scenes
Just some have the ability to close their eyes and imagine the posibilities
Katlyn Scragg
everything in this world is a product of competition. improve on something because someone is better than you, because your value depends on the value of others. it is sad. it is depressing. beauty is set by standards. beauty is only there when you fight for it.
everything is a fight.
everything is a battle, a competition.
everything you fight for is painful, but not always worth it.
Complete. Finish. Make it to the end.
That’s not something I’ve ever been good at.
I don’t know if I’m scared.
What happens at the end?
Once something is complete… where does it go?
What happens to the one who did it?
Once you complete something, where do you go from there?
Once it’s done, it’s gone.
And you might as well be left standing empty handed.
Compete? What capitalist scum. I thought this said “complete,” like, I gotta complete a short story i’m writing for a contest.No competition. Only revolution. A revolution where we are all valuable and that no one is compared to anyone else…we are all valuable !
Sauce
Competing with you has always been the worst. We pretend to enjoy it, but it’s just a false front. It makes up fight more and worse. Our small gestures are never enough. Why can’t we just love each other?
Now, there is a lot of competition. People compete every day for things like grades, colleges, etc. It seems like people just care about moving forwards in the world and competing. Competition scares me. There’s too much of it. People are so aggressive and scary. People change during competition.
Chelsea
I would love to compete
with someone else
instead of in my head
because my heart and thoughts
like to fight a lot
and I don’t know what is best
Should I listen to my heart
and follow you?
As I lay in bed
I think and think
about you and I
and think we should just be friends.
It was always there
a subtle nudge
a little one-up here,
a little there
small jabs
double-edged compliments
that chipped away
at confidence
that was barely there
at all
Compete is something I do everyday it is challenging someone or thing to do better than you can do I compete wig my brother to see who gets the shower first :)
Jemma
Compete. The thing to place individuals against one another, struggling against that other word, companionship.
How we race, churn, fight, and burn.
“…These brave knights will compete before you very eyes for riches, for glory, and, perhaps greatest of all, for the favor of her royal highness, Princess Arianna,”
The crowd roared as the princess favored the them with a modest smile as she stood, raising her arms. “Ladies and gentlemen,” she began, her voice cutting through the din with ease. “Let the games begin!”
I knew I’d never compete with her in any way because she was pretty and I wasn’t. I had never even talked to him directly, I had no idea if he knew my name. But I still felt as if she was my enemy and I had to win him over more then she. Julianna is blonde and happy and supermodel material. I’m just the opposite. Nick prefers her probably because I’m younger and have hair the color of old caramel.
Pasty Lace
It was hardest on the children. Both their parents were trying not to compete for their affections, but their animosity for each other made it difficult to avoid getting them caught in the crossfire.
tonykeyesjapan
She stood in front of all the people staring at her, and began to sweat. This is what she came to do. She came to compete with the best of the best, thinking herself to be one of them. But at this moment, she did not feel like it. She did not feel like the best.
Alice Lesniak
Complete silence fell over, it was like i had told them i was dying. No, all I said was I was pregnant. I may be a teen but at least I can act more mature than these people, my “family”.
Are you going to give it up? No.
Malorie
no, I won’t compete with a clock
to tick-tock my words and my brain
I’ll just close the page really fast
and never open it again
Sarah
My sister and I never really got along. We were 6 years apart, which didn’t help much. My sister thought that because I was born first, my parents loved me more, just because of that. I used to call her stupid, but this many years later I can kind of see her point. Both of us would compete for my dad’s attention, because mom was always at work.
wow that went fast, ill finish here.I was saying that I feel so much better emotionally when someone else wins.
Chuck OBryan
I hate to compete. I want the other person to excell further than me. I feel that the reward is far more gratify
Chuck OBryan
Can I compete with myself? Is that the best kind of competition? Is life a competition or a co-operative? Both, I guess. The usual paradox thing. competition can bring out our best, being social animals and what-no, none of us are in a vacuum.
To compete in the race, one needed to be of sound mind and sound body. This year was her year. She was going to win no matter what. Even if that meant she woud train until she could bot walk anymore
we grew our hair until
they scraped lily pads,
hiding even our reflection.
I remember briefly thinking
that you would no longer be able
to see the bruises on my cheek.
I would no longer be able to see
the cuts spread just above your knee.
I wonder where you are now within
your eyes, your gait, your clothes.
I see you–feel you–but you are in
clouds and worlds unknown to me.
While I steep my feet and earth
and long to touch the stars.
My hands ache to touch her soft skin again. Her smile that takes my breath away, her lashes that flutter like no other, shielding her beautifully dark brown eyes that wield bubbles of happiness to anyone who dares look into them. I fall victim to her, every single time. I wait for her to come back, every single day. I succumb to her completely; no one else can compete. My sweet niece of one— what hopes and chances await you for every single year of your life to come. ❤︎
I trust you completely; with no request for your trust in return
It’s with laughter behind my eyes and love in my heart for you I do this
It isn’t a one way thing either
I know how you feel about me too
I know it because I can see it in your smile after I tell an unfunny joke
Forrest Ahkiviana
We had the chance to compete in the high school Jeopardy! match that year, an honor that usually only juniors and seniors got. Randall and I, on the contrary, were freshmen. Sure, the upper classmen certainly raised a stink, but Missus Suthers put a cork in that very quickly.
“They get better grades than most of you in the school,” she commented, “and now you’re complaining that they’re being given the same opportunity as you as a result?”
Belinda Roddie
“Move to the right,” the volunteer said.
I moved to the side of the track, allowing the runners who were actually competing for something move along there way without me as an additional roadblock. And yet as I finished my third lap, I heard the crowd roar… of course, for the first place finisher who just lapped me.
Come Pete. You need to come and lift this bag of bones off my shoulders. My shoulders are weary from travel and from the long list of things I have to do.
When running a race or any athletic, academic, artistic, or any form of competition. You train long and hard you. When it finally comes down to “race day” you are excited. You long to see the finish line because that is what you trained for. Not just for the for the victory but because it gives you satisfaction knowing that everything you did paid off it wasn’t for nothing. You trained. You competed. You came out victoriously. You finished well. Finishing lets you know that “it is done” and doing well/ doing your best let’s know the quality of how well you were able you what you learned under pressured circumstances. It show that you can overcome. Competing is done so that you can learn and grow to overcome the next obstacle. Will you win or come out on top….Maybe not…. that is when you realize that all of life struggles come down to loving other and God. Then knowing that you compete for is to glorify Him and to reach the finish line of heaven along with others. Knowing that you have received grace and you do not have work for righteousness of favor but it was given to you. Knowing that….makes want runs as your best because out of love for the one who loves you… you know He deserves no less.
fighting and violence don’t alway go hand in hand. Maggie has mastered the ability to fight with no hands, no hits. Her words slash at your soul.
Lily
“I don’t want to compete, Gramps.” Lisa said. “I-it doesn’t seem fair. I mean, I’m old than all the other kids and I’m younger than the ones competing, so if I do accept, I’ll stick out like a sore thumb.”
She scowled down at her riding boots, noting that the silver spurs on her left boot were a bit tarnished. She’d have to scour and polish them sometime tonight. “I mean, I could, okay?” She hesitated, appreciating that she could finally tell her story and share her worries. “But as the daughter of Glen Bouroughs, champion of Aldswait, you know what they’ll say.”
Her lower lip quivered. “They’ll say I have an unfair advantage. They’ll say I cheated, even if I win. They said if I don’t compete, then I’m a coward.”
Lisa’s fingers brushed against the granite headstone. “Not a coward, Gramps, just human.”
They all looked positively radiant in the photo. Madison, John, and baby Ella. Adopted from China, but still their daughter nonetheless. If seen by a stranger, they’d look like the happiest family on earth.
But I knew better.
Growing up, Madi always had her eyes on John. My John. And simply because she was prettier than I was, she got to walk down that stupid isle with him—really though, who was I trying to fool? I’d never been able to compete with the gorgeous brunette.
Just looking at the picture made me sick, and seeing John’s smile not at its fullest made my heart ache even more. I set the picture back down on the mantle and turned around to face the man I’d been in love with for nearly ten years. “You all look so cute,” I say, plastering a smile and swallowing hard to keep the tears from falling. “I’m happy for you.”
But even as John hugged me and offered his thanks, I knew I’d never truly be happy.
Not without him.
AJ Kenobi
Why do women always compete against each other? Can we not learn to love each other instead? The man is not the prize.
“And I know I can’t compete with her, that’s why I don’t even try,” you whispered to me as I hugged you for the last time.
“I know,” I cried, “But you wouldn’t want to. She has my heart in ways you never did.”
Then you looked up at me with tears in your perfect blue eyes and I kissed your forehead the way I would in the summer whenever you and your mom would fight or you thought you had done something wrong.
I walked away. Without anything else.
I looked whole.
Complete.
Happy even.
But I wasn’t. I wanted to scream to the world that you didn’t need to compete because I love you and you are the only one in the world that will ever understand me the way I need to be understood. But I couldn’t. . .
i follow my friends to the field
we watch as she scores
we cheer and she bows
the others, they frown and dip their heads
we won, they lost
Compete
Life is a competition
One big competition
For food, love, happiness, jobs
To see who is the happiest and who is living their lives the fullest
no one ever really goes anywhere though
We are all stuck looking at the same scenes
Just some have the ability to close their eyes and imagine the posibilities
everything in this world is a product of competition. improve on something because someone is better than you, because your value depends on the value of others. it is sad. it is depressing. beauty is set by standards. beauty is only there when you fight for it.
everything is a fight.
everything is a battle, a competition.
everything you fight for is painful, but not always worth it.
always leaves you battle-scarred for life.
Complete. Finish. Make it to the end.
That’s not something I’ve ever been good at.
I don’t know if I’m scared.
What happens at the end?
Once something is complete… where does it go?
What happens to the one who did it?
Once you complete something, where do you go from there?
Once it’s done, it’s gone.
And you might as well be left standing empty handed.
Compete? What capitalist scum. I thought this said “complete,” like, I gotta complete a short story i’m writing for a contest.No competition. Only revolution. A revolution where we are all valuable and that no one is compared to anyone else…we are all valuable !
Competing with you has always been the worst. We pretend to enjoy it, but it’s just a false front. It makes up fight more and worse. Our small gestures are never enough. Why can’t we just love each other?
My heart competes with my mind :D
i dun know what you mean but i like your body. completely and fully you written. how?
Now, there is a lot of competition. People compete every day for things like grades, colleges, etc. It seems like people just care about moving forwards in the world and competing. Competition scares me. There’s too much of it. People are so aggressive and scary. People change during competition.
I would love to compete
with someone else
instead of in my head
because my heart and thoughts
like to fight a lot
and I don’t know what is best
Should I listen to my heart
and follow you?
As I lay in bed
I think and think
about you and I
and think we should just be friends.
the brain is always competing with
the heart. thoughts always compete
with feelings.
my heart wins far too often.
then, after i have fucked up, my
heart cries to my brain, “look
at what we’ve done!”
and my brains just cackles back.
what assholes,
the both of them.
It was always there
a subtle nudge
a little one-up here,
a little there
small jabs
double-edged compliments
that chipped away
at confidence
that was barely there
at all
Compete is something I do everyday it is challenging someone or thing to do better than you can do I compete wig my brother to see who gets the shower first :)
Compete. The thing to place individuals against one another, struggling against that other word, companionship.
How we race, churn, fight, and burn.
“…These brave knights will compete before you very eyes for riches, for glory, and, perhaps greatest of all, for the favor of her royal highness, Princess Arianna,”
The crowd roared as the princess favored the them with a modest smile as she stood, raising her arms. “Ladies and gentlemen,” she began, her voice cutting through the din with ease. “Let the games begin!”
I knew I’d never compete with her in any way because she was pretty and I wasn’t. I had never even talked to him directly, I had no idea if he knew my name. But I still felt as if she was my enemy and I had to win him over more then she. Julianna is blonde and happy and supermodel material. I’m just the opposite. Nick prefers her probably because I’m younger and have hair the color of old caramel.
It was hardest on the children. Both their parents were trying not to compete for their affections, but their animosity for each other made it difficult to avoid getting them caught in the crossfire.
She stood in front of all the people staring at her, and began to sweat. This is what she came to do. She came to compete with the best of the best, thinking herself to be one of them. But at this moment, she did not feel like it. She did not feel like the best.
Complete silence fell over, it was like i had told them i was dying. No, all I said was I was pregnant. I may be a teen but at least I can act more mature than these people, my “family”.
Are you going to give it up? No.
no, I won’t compete with a clock
to tick-tock my words and my brain
I’ll just close the page really fast
and never open it again
My sister and I never really got along. We were 6 years apart, which didn’t help much. My sister thought that because I was born first, my parents loved me more, just because of that. I used to call her stupid, but this many years later I can kind of see her point. Both of us would compete for my dad’s attention, because mom was always at work.
wow that went fast, ill finish here.I was saying that I feel so much better emotionally when someone else wins.
I hate to compete. I want the other person to excell further than me. I feel that the reward is far more gratify
Can I compete with myself? Is that the best kind of competition? Is life a competition or a co-operative? Both, I guess. The usual paradox thing. competition can bring out our best, being social animals and what-no, none of us are in a vacuum.
To compete in the race, one needed to be of sound mind and sound body. This year was her year. She was going to win no matter what. Even if that meant she woud train until she could bot walk anymore
we grew our hair until
they scraped lily pads,
hiding even our reflection.
I remember briefly thinking
that you would no longer be able
to see the bruises on my cheek.
I would no longer be able to see
the cuts spread just above your knee.
I wonder where you are now within
your eyes, your gait, your clothes.
I see you–feel you–but you are in
clouds and worlds unknown to me.
While I steep my feet and earth
and long to touch the stars.
My hands ache to touch her soft skin again. Her smile that takes my breath away, her lashes that flutter like no other, shielding her beautifully dark brown eyes that wield bubbles of happiness to anyone who dares look into them. I fall victim to her, every single time. I wait for her to come back, every single day. I succumb to her completely; no one else can compete. My sweet niece of one— what hopes and chances await you for every single year of your life to come. ❤︎
I trust you completely; with no request for your trust in return
It’s with laughter behind my eyes and love in my heart for you I do this
It isn’t a one way thing either
I know how you feel about me too
I know it because I can see it in your smile after I tell an unfunny joke
We had the chance to compete in the high school Jeopardy! match that year, an honor that usually only juniors and seniors got. Randall and I, on the contrary, were freshmen. Sure, the upper classmen certainly raised a stink, but Missus Suthers put a cork in that very quickly.
“They get better grades than most of you in the school,” she commented, “and now you’re complaining that they’re being given the same opportunity as you as a result?”
“Move to the right,” the volunteer said.
I moved to the side of the track, allowing the runners who were actually competing for something move along there way without me as an additional roadblock. And yet as I finished my third lap, I heard the crowd roar… of course, for the first place finisher who just lapped me.
Come Pete. You need to come and lift this bag of bones off my shoulders. My shoulders are weary from travel and from the long list of things I have to do.
When running a race or any athletic, academic, artistic, or any form of competition. You train long and hard you. When it finally comes down to “race day” you are excited. You long to see the finish line because that is what you trained for. Not just for the for the victory but because it gives you satisfaction knowing that everything you did paid off it wasn’t for nothing. You trained. You competed. You came out victoriously. You finished well. Finishing lets you know that “it is done” and doing well/ doing your best let’s know the quality of how well you were able you what you learned under pressured circumstances. It show that you can overcome. Competing is done so that you can learn and grow to overcome the next obstacle. Will you win or come out on top….Maybe not…. that is when you realize that all of life struggles come down to loving other and God. Then knowing that you compete for is to glorify Him and to reach the finish line of heaven along with others. Knowing that you have received grace and you do not have work for righteousness of favor but it was given to you. Knowing that….makes want runs as your best because out of love for the one who loves you… you know He deserves no less.
fighting and violence don’t alway go hand in hand. Maggie has mastered the ability to fight with no hands, no hits. Her words slash at your soul.
“I don’t want to compete, Gramps.” Lisa said. “I-it doesn’t seem fair. I mean, I’m old than all the other kids and I’m younger than the ones competing, so if I do accept, I’ll stick out like a sore thumb.”
She scowled down at her riding boots, noting that the silver spurs on her left boot were a bit tarnished. She’d have to scour and polish them sometime tonight. “I mean, I could, okay?” She hesitated, appreciating that she could finally tell her story and share her worries. “But as the daughter of Glen Bouroughs, champion of Aldswait, you know what they’ll say.”
Her lower lip quivered. “They’ll say I have an unfair advantage. They’ll say I cheated, even if I win. They said if I don’t compete, then I’m a coward.”
Lisa’s fingers brushed against the granite headstone. “Not a coward, Gramps, just human.”
They all looked positively radiant in the photo. Madison, John, and baby Ella. Adopted from China, but still their daughter nonetheless. If seen by a stranger, they’d look like the happiest family on earth.
But I knew better.
Growing up, Madi always had her eyes on John. My John. And simply because she was prettier than I was, she got to walk down that stupid isle with him—really though, who was I trying to fool? I’d never been able to compete with the gorgeous brunette.
Just looking at the picture made me sick, and seeing John’s smile not at its fullest made my heart ache even more. I set the picture back down on the mantle and turned around to face the man I’d been in love with for nearly ten years. “You all look so cute,” I say, plastering a smile and swallowing hard to keep the tears from falling. “I’m happy for you.”
But even as John hugged me and offered his thanks, I knew I’d never truly be happy.
Not without him.
Why do women always compete against each other? Can we not learn to love each other instead? The man is not the prize.
sometimes I liked to hear you cry at night, your sobs pouring through the cracks of my room. and sometimes i’d join.
every time i look at you the horizon aligns.
I never wanted this to happen, but I didn’t understand that fact. I didn’t know until afterward. I dropped it.
“And I know I can’t compete with her, that’s why I don’t even try,” you whispered to me as I hugged you for the last time.
“I know,” I cried, “But you wouldn’t want to. She has my heart in ways you never did.”
Then you looked up at me with tears in your perfect blue eyes and I kissed your forehead the way I would in the summer whenever you and your mom would fight or you thought you had done something wrong.
I walked away. Without anything else.
I looked whole.
Complete.
Happy even.
But I wasn’t. I wanted to scream to the world that you didn’t need to compete because I love you and you are the only one in the world that will ever understand me the way I need to be understood. But I couldn’t. . .