I was carried to Ohio in a swarm of bees.

"I'm gonna beat you!"  "I'm going to finish my food first!"  "I'm gonna be faster than you!"  "Oh, no, I can't let you beat me!"

I hear some variation on those phrases umpteen times a day.  It's ridiculous.  And it's not just Cole, kids in general are really competitive. 

I want to tell him that it doesn't matter who eats all their ice cream first or that I really don't care if he gets to the front door first (unless he is going to hold it open for me!) and that it does not matter one bit in the grand scheme of things if we get to the church building before or after his friends do. But that would be at the least slightly hypocritical.  Because who of us, masquerading as normal and well-adjusted adults, isn't competitive about at least one thing that really won't matter in 100 years? 

Being female, I am pretty well aware that most of us girls have a bit of competition in our composition.  I don't think I'm exposing any company secrets here: women as a general rule do not dress to be attractive to men.  They dress to be more attractive than the other women.

I'm not male (which should be obvious since I just stated I'm female, if for no other reason), but pretty much anyone who has seen a group of men do, well, anything should be able to attest that men compete with each other.

I am competitive, and not with the whole prettiest-girl thing.  I mean, it would be okay if I was the prettiest. But I'm competitive when I drive.  I've never been in a wreck, other than a couple fender-benders where someone else bumped me, and I've never gotten a ticket.  But this is not what I'm competitive about.

I hate being passed.  Hate it.

Not on a two lane road.  I usually drive fast enough to not be passed, and if someone passes me then they must have some emergency or just be a jerk.  But on the highway... I will speed up, I will weave, I will pull a rolling roadblock.  And I absolutely will not change lanes so someone can go past me.  No, no, no.

Note: These behaviours have lessened as I get older.  Not really out of wisdom, but out of the belief that since I have never gotten a ticket the probability of  me getting one increases each day.  At this point, I'm just pushing my luck.  If I make it to 30 without getting a ticket, I will probably be driving 10 miles below the speed limit all the time.  Pffft, who am I kidding?

Competition is healthy.  Maybe not on the highway, but lots of other places.  It pushes us, it drives and motivates us to be the best versions of us.  And I've got no problems with my kid being the best.

I shared my strange competitive thing.  What's yours?