Good, Better, Best

If you were to ask me, “do you have a match?”  I would likely say, “not since superman died.”  Except that would be wrong on a few levels.  Superman is an imaginary character and I don’t think he has died.  I reckon I would have heard about it. (Though that is not guaranteed.  I had to google the other day if Bambi’s mum was shot.  Turned out she was)
Comparisons with superman.  I don’t think so.  I am not that good.  Close maybe in my dreams. 
The main reason that would be wrong is that I really do not compare myself or get my self-worth from others.  I know in life there will always be people better than me and worse than me.  My competition in life is not with others but with myself.
Growing up my best mate was better than me.  Academically I did not stand a chance.  It was not till grade 11 that it really hit me that I should put my head down and attempt to do better.  Up till then one teacher had said to my parents, “at least he is good at sport.”
He got that right.  Cept my best mate was better than me.  Academically and sports wise. Academically I was against it I reckon.  His dad was a professor and his mum a doctor.  I remember us riding homemade go-carts. I was thinking of the best way to go to slow the thing down on the hill we were on.  What was he thinking about?”  I have just realized” he said, “why this bitumen is to be preferred.  It has less gaps and therefore wheels hold the surface better.”  In the short term that was not as important as slowing down the go cart in my mind, but in the long term I would say it was probably useful information.
In sport I had to settle for being second best – to him.  Ok it was a small pond of several hundred, but it was my world.
The thing is it highlights to me that in life there are always people better and worse than me.  Fact of life.  But as I say they are not my real competition.  I am my major competition.  My grades were such it opened doors for me and his opened doors for him.
My story is my story and not another’s.  Being content with myself liberates but continually comparing myself at best leads to short term victory or frustration and at worst bitterness, resentment and envy.