As long as I can remember, there’s always been a winner and a loser.

Maybe I can have some of my older colleagues confirm this, but I tried to do a little research and found out that winners and losers date back to… forever.

Here’s how it boils down: Someone triumphs, basks in the triumph of victory, while the other wallows, disheartened in the agony of defeat.

Why is it that we can’t accept that anymore? Why do we all have to be winners?

If you win something, boy howdy, does everyone know about it. You call up your neighbors, friends, ex-lovers and even yell it to the drunken guy stumbling through the alleyway. We can’t get enough of winning, and it is almost sickening.

Even worse, however, is when we lose. No one can just straight up accept a good old-fashioned defeat anymore.

It always has to be blamed on someone else. That drunken guy in the alleyway can’t even accept defeat. He might be leaving Riley’s alone, but it sure isn’t his fault. Just ask him.

We as a whole are a bunch of whiners and complainers. I cannot recall the last time I heard someone just say, “We lost.” There’s always an excuse, always a reason to why they didn’t win.

These are just a few examples of excuses everyone uses, and it was hard enough picking these out.

There’s plenty.

“They were cheating.”

“They just have better equipment.”

“Our guys just weren’t ready.”

And my own personal favorite (it’s opposite):

“Well, it was rigged anyway.”

YOU LOST. GET OVER IT.

I know exactly where we went wrong as a whole, and it’s really a simple solution.

I remember as a kid growing up, even if you were the absolute worst at something, you got a ribbon, passing on the message that, “Everyone is a winner.” And, “As long as you try, you win.” (I’ve watched young children now that I’m older, and it’s way worse now.)

As I got older, and being forever thankful to a fantastic father for steering me otherwise, I found out that’s the biggest stockpile of bologna ever spewed.

Everyone IS NOT a winner. You lost. Suck it up, stop crying about it, admit it, put on your big boy pants and deal with it.

We need to stop with the corruption and misleading of the young people in America.

This notion that everyone is supposed to get a ribbon or a trophy is a large pile of manure.

How is a young boy or girl supposed to get better at something or learn from his or her mistakes to improve if he or she thinks that they are already winning?

With that kind of mentality, they think in their head that there is no need for practice or hard work because they already won, so why keep practicing?

If we keep this up, America will be the biggest pushover country in the world.

However, if they know they lost, and are deprived of a trophy, they will use that empty feeling as a source of motivation, work hard, and eventually EARN a trophy on their own merits.

That’s how I have gotten this far in life, knowing I wasn’t the best and working every day at what I do to get better.

Call me old-fashioned, call me cruel and heartless or hit me for being “insensitive.” But let’s get back to having winners and losers.