Wearing The Athletic Genes

If you know me, you know that I may or may not have a problem with competition. [I do]. 

I hate to lose. At anything. Ever. 

Cue embarrassingly true stories: My first race ever (elementary school) went a little something like this...the gun fires. I break into a dead sprint. Looking back occasionally, smiling, thinking how great I was doing. How I was crushing the competition, and then quickly, how tired I was getting. Well as to be expected, halfway through the race I was dead. Luckily my lead was large enough for me to only get passed by 3 people, but I learned my lesson. My first basketball game (middle school) I fouled out in the first 15 minutes. Enough said there. 

Then along came Eric. Who is literally good at anything he tries. It's so annoying! He is equally as competitive, but never really has to work at it like I do. Everything just seems to come naturally to him, and it drives me crazy. As I'm sprinting back and forth across the tennis court, drenched in sweat, he's on the other side of the net gracefully returning the ball with a perfectly executed backhand. Ugh. I'd venture to so that this angry, fiery competition bug inside me has caused about 95% of our arguments in the last 5 years. BUT, I think the thing I respect the most about his many skills, is that even though he knows how angry it makes me to lose to him, he still never lets me win on purpose. This would only make me even more upset, and he knows it. What a guy.

The point I'm getting at here, with all of this rambling, is that my little sister must have gotten skipped over in the competitive gene department. She doesn't have a competitive bone in her body. She could sit on the bench all game, and just be happy to be there. Which is fine! Today, she had a mini-triathalon. There was no "real" winner, so they were all just there having fun. Naturally, my sister started in the back of the swim line after generously letting everyone go ahead of her. She then rode her bike as quickly as she could in first gear, and did pretty darn well in the running portion. She just flat out doesn't have that burning competitive drive that I do. She's extremely lean and strong, but could care less if she won, or finished last by an hour. Either way, it was fun to watch her "compete" and have fun with all of her classmates!

 {Such a terrible picture, but it was the only one I got after turning around and realizing that she was about to pass me}

 {Water break. At least she looks better than Hollister Jeans behind her, right?}

{This was at CJ's softball game this evening. Such a typical Natty face, playing with her gum, couldn't resist putting it up}