genuinegirly

Do you have a competitive drive?
Do you enjoy competing?
Professionally, Academically, or Athletically?

If you do enjoy competition, what drives you?
If you don't, what holds you back?
Do you think that your status as a woman has much to do with your stance?


Here's where I'm coming from:

I'm taking an Organic Chemistry course this summer, which is graded on a curve. This is the first time that I have been in a class where the folks have taken the curve seriously. ie - there is a lot of hostile competition in the air.

I'm not a fan of competition when it comes to academics. I used to love it. I grew out of it when I hit high school. Probably because I don't see much point in killing myself over a class. This whole anti-competition streak kept me away from classes like this. Now i'm at the point where I can't graduate without it.

I can't stand walking into a tense classroom. I don't enjoy "making friends" that give you advice that is innacurate because they want you to score poorly.

Not a fan of competition myself. Maybe it's because I've lost enough to sympathize with those who don't make the cut. I've been in plenty of environments where everyone who does well, wins. I just don't understand why competition must be a part of the United States' universities. Is the goal to educate? Is learning to compete one of the skills they're trying to instill?

I don't think that my gender has anything to do with my dislike of competition, but some (mother, former friends) say it does. I'm curious what you folks have to say about gender and competition.

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"Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq

"violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy