#1 ·
I was thinking about this today after watching some old clips of local athletes. There’s something uniquely brutal about being a "small pond" competitor. You train your entire life, push through every injury and every early morning, just to get to the big stage, only to have it all end right when you're within arm's reach of history.
It’s not even about the loss itself, really. It’s that specific kind of hollow feeling you get when you realize you were just one step away from changing the narrative for your whole community. People talk about "win or go home," but they never talk about how much it hurts to go home when you know you were good enough to be there.
Do you think it’s better to be the person who falls just short of glory, or the person who never even makes it to the big stage to begin with?
It’s not even about the loss itself, really. It’s that specific kind of hollow feeling you get when you realize you were just one step away from changing the narrative for your whole community. People talk about "win or go home," but they never talk about how much it hurts to go home when you know you were good enough to be there.
Do you think it’s better to be the person who falls just short of glory, or the person who never even makes it to the big stage to begin with?