Trophies
How many and what kind of trophies have you won in your lifetime?
This was a question I was thinking about the other day. Looking back at the time since grade school, its amazing that so many trophies have been given out. Now that I have kids of my own, I now realize and appreciate what an important rite of passage this really is. Think about it, in grade school, when you maintain decent grades, you usually get Academic Awards. These may not be much, but they do send a very subtle message about the virtues of hard work and they make you feel good. Also around the same time, when you are introduced to team sports (usually soccer) you play on a team with other 7 year old kids for the first time, and it doesn’t matter how god or bad you are, but you almost always receive soccer trophies, again making you feel good about your accomplishments and in some weird way gives credence to waking up early on Saturdays and going to the soccer field with your parents (even though half the time you don’t feel like going). But when you receive your trophy, it somehow makes it all seem worth it. Then when you are in High School and take up a non-traditional sport like, let’s say golf, you even get golf trophies for just being on the golf team. Its too bad that we don’t get trophies during all stages of our lives.



