Reflection About Competition

Ever since I was a young child, I was drawn to competition. I was on a swim team and, because of that, I received many skills that have help me; to this day even! I loved when we went up against other teams, because all of my hard work had paid off to bring me to that point. I am not a naturally good swimmer, but I worked at it and got better and better, because I wanted to do well in the meets. I used to think that I deserved the world, but through this I learned that I didn’t and needed to work if I wanted anything. Besides swimming I would also compete with my brother. They would be small things, like who can swing the highest, but even those helped me gain problem solving skills. Competition is a wonderful thing for students because it helps problems be solved, teaches them dedication and improves their character.

A prime example of this is in First Lego League programming competitions. Teams are required to build a robot to help solve a problem in the world. In fact, this is useful because several of the designs from past years’ competitions have gone on to become actual robots serving the community. Consequently, because of these competitions there are ways for people's lives to become better because the robots have assisted with solving problems. I recently saw an article that listed all of the objects that wouldn’t exist now if it weren’t for competition and rivalries. For example, without competition, we would not have light bulbs, computers, radio communication or insulin, to name a few. Therefore, you must admit that life would be significantly more difficult for many people if it weren’t for these inventions. For these reasons, I believe that competition can help solve problems in ways that wouldn’t be possible without