<p>This week ended up being so bittersweet:</p>
<ul>
<li>On youtube, my friends and I entered a video into a contest and won honorable mention (not the final award)</li>
<li>At the state science fair, I placed 6th (top 5 go to Intel)</li>
<li>I'm a sophomore, and I scored a 95 on the AMC...5 points shy of qualifying for the AIME</li>
</ul>
<p>Anyone else have similar experiences?</p>
<p>Not personally, but since college basketball is going on right now, I can tell you that losing by two is way worse than losing by fifteen.</p>
<p>I don't know. I'm weird like that because I actually like 2nd just as much as 1st. got 2nd all through middle school-every science, math, etc fair...</p>
<p>i would rather almost win than get killed.</p>
<p>i would rather get killed than win anything other than 1st place. just playing, but yea it sucks.</p>
<p>Second place is the first loser...</p>
<p>No, just kidding.</p>
<p>You mean missing the USAMO by one AIME problem? Yes. That hurt.</p>
<p>...But what hurt a lot more was getting a 2 on the AIME the year after. >.<</p>
<p>Wow, that happened to me too. Except I got a 4 instead of a 2.</p>
<p>I like almost winning better than getting crushed absolutely. lol.</p>
<p>wanna feel worse? it's actually 97.5 the cutoff...so you were 2.5 points from the cutoff :(</p>
<p>I HATE almost winning, while I would prefer it over getting killed in some aspects... it bugs me...when I am one point shy of an 'A' or when I get beat in a race by a few milliseconds (or seconds depending on the race).
I really REALLY hate it, I and never the best at anything...ANYTHING. I am good at things, and sometimes can be ONE OF THE BEST, but I am never the best which bothers the CRAP out of me.
I feel worse when I miss the cut by a point then If I were to get creamed... whatever that be...</p>
<p>
[quote]
I am never the best which bothers the CRAP out of me.
[/quote]
I agree...there's nothing that I'm good at...only small things that I am semi-good at. =( and its not that i dont try...</p>
<p>When I played on the basketball team I never looked at the scoreboard unless we were close to winning. But losing by a three pointer is more painful then losing by 20.</p>
<p>Losing by a tiny bit is agonizing!! In a race, if I get beaten by a lot I can just rationalize by telling myself that the other person was just a lot better than me, but I always beat myself up when I lose by a fraction of a second since I know that if I had done something slightly different I could have won.</p>
<p>Ask anyone who heard me swear and punch a locker after we lost to our Quiz Bowl rivals by 15 points. They'll tell you exactly how much it sucks. I preferred it when we got blown out by a weaker team. =/</p>
<p>^lmao i know what that feels like (not Quizbowl) it sux</p>
<p>At times, almost winning can be bitter. Such as in video games (I always replay the last moments of a SSBM/SSBB match in my head, thinking about what I should've done, even though I probably suck so that I won't be able to do what I imagine), or, in a sense, course selections (talked about this several times). I don't precisely know my AMC score yet, but I've heard that it was in the 90's, and if it was that close to the cutoff...</p>
<p>Other times, I don't feel bitter, especially if I don't really care that much. Like that one Quiz Bowl round.</p>
<p>It's also that feeling you get when you almost retrieve the Amulet of Yendor, but then you fall in lava or slip while wielding a cockatrice corpse...</p>
<p>You do learn from your errors and think about what you could've done better, but you can't help thinking you've just wasted six hours of your day.</p>
<p>I thought almost winning was pretty bad when I was still a weirdo that had never actually lost. </p>
<p>Now I agree with Infinite Truth- it's better to almost win than to be totally crushed.</p>
<p>An 89.4% is better than a 30% on a test, haha.</p>
<p>I'm not the best in any of my classes, last year or this year. I have my best classes, but there's always someone better. Same in sports. I only play one, volleyball, and though I improved it wasn't good enough (let alone "the best"). I don't get bitter about it, unless I really cared (English class and related things are those that I really care about). </p>
<p>I've actually only been called "the best" once, and it was unofficial.</p>