- Loser by Beck
I always get depressed when I lose - at anything. Tonight I got back from basketball league where my team lost yet again. We are winless on the season so we're probably 0-8 or 0-9 at this point.
We've had a few close games against good teams and some lopsided blowouts against some of the weaker teams.
Tonight I actually felt okay energy-wise during the game. However for some odd reason my legs were excruciatingly sore. Two nights ago I was just doing some exercise in my apartment consisting of push-ups, sit-ups, and some squats. The following day I felt fine but for some reason when I woke up today my legs felt like they were going to fall off. By the time I left work they were so tight I could barely walk. Anyway, I stretched before the game so that didn't bother me so much.
Before each game I tell myself I'm going to do well. I'm going to be aggressive, run the floor, play good defense, crash the boards... Well tonight I think I grabbed 7 or 8 boards and played decent defense. I ran the floor but was unable to get any fastbreak points mainly due to a lack of opportunities. The thing that really pissed me off was I missed 3 or 4 really close range chippies. Part of it was just me not warming up enough the other part was that I was so wide open I hesitated.
Anyway, I ended up scoring a whopping 0 points. I'm usually good for about 6 a game, which isn't much but the point is I missed easy opportunities to score.
But as I said, I hate losing, no matter how unrealistic winning is. I hate losing in anything...any sort of competition in which there is a clear cut winner and loser. In basketball it's simple, whichever team has more points at the end of the game is the winner and the other team - well, they're the losers.
But in life, what makes someone a winner or a loser?
We often call people 'losers'. And we don't mean this literally in that they lost some event which has measurable standards for determining a victor. We mean that this person is inferior, insufficient, or incompetent at life. When we call someone a loser we imply that we are superior to that person. Of course, no one ever thinks of themself as a loser.
So, I repeat myself...what makes someone a loser?
Off the top of my head:
- being unemployed or having a unrespectable job
- being in poor physical shape or being unattractive
- not being sociable
- being passionate about something obscure or counter-popular culture
- someone who is disliked by many people
Okay, so it seems like the main theme of these reasons would have to do with deviation from the norm. We view people who are different from ourselves (and we're obviously not losers in our own minds) as being losers.
But do these people view themselves as losers? Maybe they do. Some people have self-esteem issues and look down upon themselves even if others do. On the flip side, someone who is considered a loser by many may not view themselves in that light.
In viewing yourself I believe the determining factor is your personal happiness. Forgot about all those reasons people use to label someone a loser. If you are happy with yourself then you aren't going to think of yourself as a loser. Even if you're overweight, unattractive, anti-social, unemployed, passionate about some really eclectic things as long as you're happy with yourself you won't consider yourself a loser.
I realize this is a bit of an idealized view as I don't think many people truly don't give a damn about what people think. But hey, if you're happy with yourself...screw everyone else!
Conversely, you can be attractive, employed, sociable, and in tune with popular culture and be completely miserable. Others may think you're DA MAN or DA WO'MAN but if you think you're a loser it won't help cheer you up.
Now I'll make a statement completely unsupported by facts or statistics. Often times I read about people committing suicide who to all external sources appeared quite happy and content with their lives.
I believe this happens often. People often mask their sadness well, sometimes for the reason of not wanting to burden others with their troubles. And then BOOM...one day they reach their breaking point and its over. No one except that person saw it coming...
Anyway, before I make people too depressed the point I was trying to get across was that if you're happy with who you are, you aren't a loser...no matter what everyone else tells you.
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