What did the water buffalo say to his son when he left home?
-Bye son. (bison)
This past week, I had a qualifying track meet. Based off the competition, I knew it would be hard to advance to the next round. However, I ended up running quite slowly and now I'm out. This was pretty disappointing for me not because I thought I would make it, because I was hoping for a super close race and whatever happened happened. In actuality, I was too afraid to go too fast at the beginning so I ended up running 7 seconds behind the person in front of me and 12 seconds faster the next guy behind me. So how did I deal with this?
I'm not going to say that this experience made me happy because it certainly didn't. But I think that it could have always been worse. I could have gone way too hard and not been able to finish the race. I could have ran even slower. It's generally hard to think of worse possibilities when going through a tough time. By taking a closer look at my abilities, I only ran a little slower than expected whereas it was possible that I ran waay waay worse. Another thing that made this feel better is that know I want to make it next year that much more. Next year, I'll be more prepared and know what not to do. And compared to the people who did make it this year, I'll be more willing to take risks in the hope that I can qualify for the next round.
And remember, that these methods of feeling better don't exist solely to console one self, it is there because most (and I emphasize most) of the time, it wasn't nearly as bad as you feel. When I say that I could of run worse, that is true and I don't say that to only feel better. I say it because by knowing it's true, you can find peace with the matter. And as the ol' song "Hockey Pokey" goes: "That's what it's all about!"
