Competition Is Dumb

"Your idea of a conversation is the third degree, because I don't really know you and I don't really want to talk about me." --Ani DiFranco

Can I tell you how obnoxious it is to exist in an entire world of adults who are still content on competing with each other like a bunch of teenage boys playing street-ball? I don't mean competing for fun, as in, "Let's go play a game of chess or scrabble and try to one-up each other." This competition is fairly healthy; at the very least, fun. I mean shamelessly competing at life. Like walking, talking raw-nerve endings ready to rattle off five sources to back up every phrase that exits their mouth they anxiously dodge the 98% of human beings sharing the planet with them in hopes that they are not engaged in comfortable, polite conversation for more than thirty seconds. This is what it is like to be an outsider around a group of graduate students in America. It's sometimes laughable the lack of experience and worldly interaction some of these people have had--sometimes humbling. I have met two kinds of graduate student: the one who has walked into this academic world as his or her birthright, never having expected to end up anywhere else, and those that have fought and scrapped and saved and worked twenty hours a day since adolescence to get here. And in the end I still have to ask, "What's the prize?"

Some may answer, "One gets to be an interesting, intelligent person with plenty of cash and free time to continue growing and spreading one's influence to help those less-fortunate in the world." But these people would likely be lying. I think the majority, if they could untie their brains long enough to muster the English language and speak in coherent sentences would say something about the flat-screen television they can't wait to buy when they finally graduate, or (and I shit you not) the video game station they want to own to unwind with after work. And as I sit lazily by--yawning from the good night's rest I received, thinking of the hike I would like to go on this weekend, and waiting for a pause in the enthralling conversation about the, "hideous clothes that that bitch in my psych class was wearing" to talk about the enlightening novel I just finished--I have to wonder who's really getting ahead? Sure, they seem to have nice toys now, but it hasn't truly seemed to sink in yet that they are tens of thousands of dollars in debt and will likely only make the equivalent of a high school graduate in a clerical position when they do finally get into the work place. And lest you say I am essentially making a very wordy argument that measures up to, "Ah kids today!" I will elaborate.

There are people dying all over the world from the flu because they can't get the basic health care they need. There are multiple wars that America is fighting in several different countries based mostly on ignorant people electing ignorant leaders. We are in the middle of a historical election year in presidential politics and the largest shift in national values our generation is likely to see in our lifetime. We have access as United States citizens to travel anywhere in the world that we can afford without so much as a second bag check. There are warehouses full of books that people have spent years torturing themselves to write to better our minds and hearts. There are thousands of musical instruments one can learn how to play. There are millions of recipes that one can learn how to cook. If you are really going to sit there with your microwavable meal and your giant SUV in the driveway and talk to me about the last episode of, "Lost" as a graduate student--a future professional leader of our country--and expect that I'm not going to think less of you because of how hard you worked for all of this, we're probably not as good of friends as you think. Working hard blindly is for idiots chasing materialistic dreams. Working smart and learning lessons along the way takes some patience and brains. Achieving peace with yourself and the world you live in takes enlightenment and wisdom; foresight and deep breathing. Where are you on your path? Are you getting what you really want out of your time here? Are you leaving anything better for future generations? Or are you spreading the stress and anxiety and competitiveness that has us all wondering, "What's the point?"

If we're winning, who is losing? The poor, the disabled, the abused, the truly challenged that need our help? Is that really something to be so proud of yourself for? Think fast. It's later than you think.