Don’t get me wrong, it’s better to have confidence in yourself than to be doubtful of your abilities. Many factors come with being confident, but many factors come with many consequences. Consequences can derive from excessive confidence. Many times, we are blinded by our confidence, making us more susceptible to our weaknesses and blindsides. At a moment’s notice, you are vulnerable and could be attacked whenever. For example, let’s say you finally made it on the varsity team, for instance, you are happy and celebrating. You begin to relax since you’re thinking to yourself, “HAHA, finally… I made it after all these years.” Therefore, you decide to chill and relax. Whereas in reality, this is the time that you should be pushing yourself even harder, every day. There are many instances where one tends to relax, like the Global School Playday and practicing a new religion, Stoicism.

The Global School Playday was a full day of entertainment. There were many exciting games and activities; however, the only thing I played was cards. It brought me many memories of when I was a kid since I loved playing cards when I was younger. Now, I don’t have as much time in comparison to when I was younger. For example, I played a card game of Thirteen. The main goal in Thirteen is to get rid of your cards! You may be wondering, how does this game relate to the big question, “Why does being too confident in yourself make you vulnerable”? In general, the game Thirteen is unpredictable. You never know you will win until you place your last card down. Let’s say you only have one more card and think to yourself, “Okay, just one more card, this should be an easy game.” As you can see, you get way too confident in yourself and you don’t see your weakness, your vulnerability. As a result, your opponent realizes it and starts to throw in combos after combos, resulting in a loss. You lost. You’re mad and a bit salty. “Wow, just wow,” you say to yourself. 

Another example would be the time when I was practicing a new religion with my groupmates, Stoicism, which taught me many things. To start, Stoicism is a religion based on peace, tranquility, and also patience. It teaches one how to stay calm and relaxed in doubtful times. A main part of Stoicism would be meditating and taking ice baths daily. Doing this relaxes the mind and loosens up the body. This allows us to focus and concentrate more on the important things in our lives. In our one week of trying to live like a Stoic, it was safe to say that it was pretty difficult. 

The first thing we tried as a Stoic was the freezing and numbing ice bath. This was very beneficial for us since it was not only healthy but also helped us get out of our comfort zone. In general, the hardest part of the ice bath is getting into it. You would see videos of athletes going into the ice bath screaming, “AHHHH” or “WOOOO” whenever they would enter it. Yes, that type of person going into the ice bath was me. However, once you are in there and numb yourself, it gets a lot better from there. After finishing the ice bath, we wanted to create peace in our minds which resulted in meditating. Breathing in and out, relaxed our bodies from head to toe and especially cleared whatever was on our minds. By the end of the one week, the ice baths became easier and I began to feel better by the day. I’m very grateful for trying this activity with my groupmates and getting out of my comfort zone. Relating to the essential question, Stoicism improved my mind into having confidence in myself, but not cockiness. It helped me to stay humble and calm.