aspirations of mediocrity
LIKE MOST KIDS, I ONCE YEARNED TO BE great. I wanted to earn the best grade on the test and pitch the most no-hitters. I wanted to be faster than the tall kids and tougher than the small kids. I wanted to win the egg toss fair and square, and I had the yolkstained Keds to prove it.
The idolization of greatness is fully ingrained well before we scratch and sniff our first “Grape Job!” sticker in grade school. After all, it feels good to win. In a world where success is as nebulous as it is revered, winning something—anything—is the closest metric
