Winning a Game, or Having a Great Time?
Last night, after we turned off the lights to go to bed, it was Boons's turn to share his thoughts.
He excitedly announced:
— Mom, today was the happiest day ever!
Right after saying that, he suddenly remembered that he had said the exact same thing on Khôi's birthday.
So he corrected himself:
— Oh wait, one of the happiest days. Or maybe the top happiest day!
I got curious:
— What happened that made you so happy?
— Today we played alliance dodgeball, Mom!
— So did your team win or lose?
In my head, I was already sure his team must have won, since he was so excited.
— We lost!
— Wait, you lost but it was still the happiest? How does that work?
He started telling the story, still full of excitement:
— We lost two rounds. Then the teacher gave us a hint: 'Why do you think the game is called Alliance Dodgeball?'
— Then we got it! In the last round, we stopped throwing balls at each other. We teamed up, put the balls down, and all raised our hands together. So it was a tie!
Ahaaaaa!
Now I understood.
Hearing him tell the story, I suddenly remembered a time I went to a company training years ago.
That day, we also played a team game. Each team had to use big sheets of paper to make a boat, then everyone had to stand on it and work together to move to the finish line.
The rules allowed you to leave teammates behind along the way. As long as at least one person made it to the finish on the boat, your team could win.
So if you wanted to win at all costs, you could totally leave some teammates behind to make the boat lighter and go faster.
But my team agreed on one thing:
No leaving anyone behind.
And once we decided that, the whole team had to figure out how to make it work.
So everyone split up the jobs. My team was also the only one that thought to use tape to reinforce the boat before starting.
In the end, my team came in second out of five teams.
But what made everyone happiest was that we didn't lose a single person, and our boat didn't even get a single tear!
It just got a little wrinkled. Looking at our boat, I felt like it could have gone another ten rounds, easy.
Meanwhile, all the other teams' boats were wrecked after the race.
So our team was ridiculously happy!
We were so happy we even named our team HAPPY.
And at the end of the training, my HAPPY team was even nominated as the Most Inspiring Team!
Years have gone by, but I still remember exactly how I felt that day.
It wasn't about the joy of coming in second, or even being nominated.
It was because our whole team decided together what mattered to us, and then figured out how to do it really well.
So when I heard Boons tell his story, I totally got it.
I understood why he was so happy, even though his team lost in the end.
And I had a little extra happiness too.
Because he got to experience something for himself, which is:
Winning isn't always the most memorable thing about a game.
Sometimes, what makes us happiest is how the whole team played together.
And some kinds of happiness, you still remember years later.
❤️
