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> Truman students are high-achieving in high school, and they get to college and they can no longer compete with everyone here, and they get depressed. This is

> Truman students are high-achieving in high school, and they get to college and they can no longer compete with everyone here, and they get depressed. This is life, at some point it is thrust into your face that there are always other people who do what you do, and do it better. Participation in competitive sports can be a good way to learn to deal with this at an earlier age. Every level, from youth to junior high to JV to Varsity to college/minor and ultimately pro has a talent filter. You can be good on your middle school team and then in high school find that you don't make the Varsity cut.

spacemanmatt 6y ago
> Participation in competitive sports can be a good way to learn to deal with this at an earlier age Not if you went to my school junior or high school. The (very wealthy) district used egregious tactics to remain classified as a size 4A district for years after it realistically exceeded that classification, so it could "compete" against teams from rural and poor areas with smaller student bases and WAY smaller tax bases. On the other hand, they had everything else (college, jobs at dad's company, etc.) handed to them the same way so maybe it did prepare them for their lives. Ugh.
spaceisballer 6y ago
I think competing in sports helped me out a great deal in that regard. I went from being a top notch athlete in our HS division to being mediocre at best for a small Division 1 school. It forced me to take a look at myself and figure out what I wanted to do with myself. So I instead focused on school and hanging out with friends and playing intramural sports as long as they just remained fun. In the end it really is about having multiple facets in your life, when one doesn’t go well if you have nothing else to lean on you will likely fall. So if sports are life and you get injured or are no longer competing at a high level, not surprised people have a hard time coping.
rambojazz 6y ago
> This is life, at some point it is thrust into your face that there are always other people who do what you do, and do it better. This cannot be "always" true. Somebody has to be at the top of the game so it's a matter of discovering if you're at the top or not.

spacemanmatt 6y ago

> Participation in competitive sports can be a good way to learn to deal with this at an earlier age Not if you went to my school junior or high school. The (very wealthy) district used egregious tactics to remain classified as a size 4A district for years after it realistically exceeded that classification, so it could "compete" against teams from rural and poor areas with smaller student bases and WAY smaller tax bases. On the other hand, they had everything else (college, jobs at dad's company, etc.) handed to them the same way so maybe it did prepare them for their lives. Ugh.

spaceisballer 6y ago

I think competing in sports helped me out a great deal in that regard. I went from being a top notch athlete in our HS division to being mediocre at best for a small Division 1 school. It forced me to take a look at myself and figure out what I wanted to do with myself. So I instead focused on school and hanging out with friends and playing intramural sports as long as they just remained fun. In the end it really is about having multiple facets in your life, when one doesn’t go well if you have nothing else to lean on you will likely fall. So if sports are life and you get injured or are no longer competing at a high level, not surprised people have a hard time coping.

rambojazz 6y ago

> This is life, at some point it is thrust into your face that there are always other people who do what you do, and do it better. This cannot be "always" true. Somebody has to be at the top of the game so it's a matter of discovering if you're at the top or not.