Sometimes we just don't win.

There's one thing about being the oldest that I've learned now that I'm a mom, that is a bad thing and can be a good thing and that's the fact that everything you are going through is more or less your parent's first time going through that.
Mason has become over the past few years a budding author. He loves to write stories/books. Most of the time it's him telling me what to write and I try to keep up with his exciting imagination. Now that he's in school I am so excited that he gets to start showing off his talent. We entered one of Mason's stories into the Inspirations contest. (Reflections type of contest) We were so excited. He was even the artist for all the awesome pictures in the book. His story was picked by his school to represent the school at the Regional level. We were so proud. And Me being his mom ( a little biased and proud) thought for sure, "how could he lose?" I love reading his stories. So I guess we didn't set him up for the chance that he wouldn't win. The names of all the kids that didn't place were called. Mason was the 4th to the last to call up. So as they went through all the names and his wasn't called we got more and more confident that he was going to win. Than he was called. And was given his certificate of participation. The sore loser in me really wanted to just leave right than and save Mason from the hurt of having to watch all the other kids get called up and receive a metal. But Matt said we needed to stay. It became very obvious by the end that Mason did not earn a metal. He was heart broken. He looked at me and his eyes were full of tears and said "where's my metal? Didn't they like my story?" My mommy claws and my need to protect him wanted so bad to go ask that same question to someone. That was my boy. And of course I thought he was the best. But Matt kept me level headed. We tried to explain to him that we don't always win. That doesn't mean that we're not good. It just teaches us to keep trying. Well this didn't work. He lost it. He was sobbing and just didn't get it. We left as quick as we could. He cried most of the way home. We had a long talk on the way home. We assured him that he is amazing at what he does and not to stop. He was one of 2 kindergartners that made it to Regions. The 2 that did win were older. So with time and practice I bet he will be even more amazing. Unfortunately in life we can't always win and that sucks. But oh well. We pick up where we are and keep trying. It was a tough lesson. It's ok to not always be the best of the best. As long as we know that we are doing the best we can we can only get better.