the glory of defeat

what on earth were WE thinking? what on earth was I thinking? we were humiliated, annihilated, crushed, beaten, awed, humbled, blown away, ______, ______, ______, ...you can fill in the blanks. the table tennis tournament that me and some of my officemates joined can be succinctly described by one word: DISASTER. our team of 4 players did not win a single match, not even a single set. the field was simply too good for us. ironically, two of my teammates went out drinking the night before. drunk guy number one went home around 12 midnight, while drunk guy number two (who was supposed to be a top 10 table tennis player from japan) went home around 4 am. he even came in late on the morning of the tournament, still smelling of alcohol and wearing slacks and shoes that were so scruffy i wondered if he had to crawl his way home last night. player number 3 didn't even join the practice session last night because he went out on a date. so there we were, 4 guys who barely had any practice (actually... none...), 2 of us still nursing a hangover, ranged against the elite, the best of the best, of cebu's table tennis scene. no wonder. and what the hell went in to our heads that we joined the tournament thinking that we could actually win? overconfident or just plain delusional? maybe both. i'll just charge it to experience then. drunk guy number one actually had some words of wisdom distilled from the experience. he said that you can look at it 2 ways, either you become so discouraged that you stop playing table tennis altogether, or you use it as a reason to actually improve yourself in the game so in the next tournament you can at least give a decent showing, or maybe even win. so even though my ego was bruised, at least i came home with a lesson... and a free t-shirt.