We like labels.

They make life feel manageable.

A Winner?

A Loser?

As if people can be measured so easily. As if life keeps score on a single, shared board.

From the beginning, we’re taught how to recognize a “winner.” The student with the highest marks. The one collecting degrees, certificates, titles.The one who never seems to stop achieving.

Later, it becomes the person with the first job. The first house. The first car.

The one who looks settled while everyone else is still figuring it out.

They are “ahead.” That’s the word we use. Ahead in life.

But ahead of nothing.

Comparison assumes we all started at the same place,

with the same energy, the same resources,

the same fears.

It assumes effort always leads to reward. It assumes fairness.

And life has never promised that.

Some people study half as much and score twice as high.

Some understand things instantly while others fight for every concept.

Some work relentlessly, sleep-deprived and exhausted,only to be overtaken by someone with better timing, better support,or simply better luck.That doesn’t make one person lazy or the other more deserving.

It just means capacity is different. Circumstances are different.

And outcomes don’t follow a neat formula.

We praise effort, but we reward results.

And when the results don’t match the work, we quietly turn effort into shame.

We forget how unpredictable life really is.

How one opportunity can change everything.

How one setback can erase years of progress.

How luck pure, undeserved luck sometimes does more than years of discipline ever could.The student with perfect grades may still feel empty.

The one chasing extra degrees may still feel lost.The person who bought their first house may still be afraid.

And the one who seems “behind” may be quietly growing into something solid.

There is no universal pace. No fixed order. No correct timeline.

It was never a race. We just treat it like onebecause watching others move faster makes us question our own worth.

Maybe being a winner isn’t about collecting milestones.

Maybe it’s about knowing when to rest.Knowing when to stop comparing.

Knowing that doing your best doesn’t always look impressive from the outside.

And maybe being a loser isn’t failing.

Maybe it’s just being human in a world that confuses speed with success.

So maybe we take it easy.

Not because we don’t care, but because life is too unpredictableto carry so much pressure all the time.

Because sometimes,the hardest-working person doesn’t “win.”

And sometimes, the person who never slept didn’t need to suffer that much at all.

Comparison doesn’t work because life doesn’t play fair.

And maybe the real win is realizing that we were never behind because we were all just running ahead of nothing.

Penned by:

Rtr. Chanithi Korala

Editorial Committee Member 25.26