The only participation trophy I remember getting was for a triathlon. I remember that I tried, and that it was harder than I expected. I received a participation trophy, even though I finished in like 8th place or something. I remember that there was a first place trophy, and I am pretty sure everyone else just got a participation trophy. It was a very small trophy, only a little bit bigger than my hand at the time. I remember that my sister also competed, and she got first place in her age group. The first place trophy was way more colorful and shiny, and was about three times the size of the participation trophy. My trophy didn’t mean much to me. To be honest, I can’t even remember if it was a medal or a trophy. But for a short period of time, it did remind me of my accomplishment. Participation trophies are small objects that can make you feel proud of your accomplishments, and that is a good thing.

I think that a participation trophy helps the person who is receiving it without undervaluing the achievements of the winner. Writing the pro-participation-trophy argument on characterandleadership.com, one person said, “It’s just a trophy or a ribbon. It makes the kid feel good about being on a team, competing and having fun. They don’t feel left out or “less than” their peers who won the league.” Participation trophies can help kids feel good about being on the team, because they are still trophies. It is good to acknowledge that a kid was part of the team, because even if they aren’t the best at a sport, they still came to practice and got better with the rest of the team. However, if there is a noticeable difference between the winners’ trophies and the participation trophies, they aren’t going to go away thinking that they were the best. The con argument on characterandleadership.com said, “The trophy actually takes away the motivation to improve… It keeps kids from feeling frustrated and experiencing failure.” In my opinion, participation trophies don’t take away the motivation to improve because in my experience, people, especially smaller kids, really want to win. The only reason a participation trophy would take away motivation to improve would be if someone is only taking part in the sport to get a trophy. Kids might still feel frustrated that they didn’t win, but giving a participation trophy doesn’t mean that they suddenly aren’t frustrated anymore. I don’t think that denying a kid a participation trophy helps them experience failure, unless the only thing they care about is a trophy. 

Participation trophies don’t set up kids for failure. Writing for New York Magazine, Noreen Malone says, “Self-esteem among young people in America has reportedly been rising since the seventies...it's now so dramatically high that social scientists are considering whether they need to find a different measurement system—we've broken the scale. Clearly, all that praise we got growing up, win or lose, must have really sunk in." Praise from parents and teachers is similar to participation trophies, since both are basically saying “you did well.” It isn’t a problem that kids are feeling good about themselves because this leads to greater self-confidence. Kids who have more self-confidence are more likely to try new things. There’s no downside to this. Students don’t fail college just because they got a medal when they were six years old. Bill Gates, billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, authored something called 11 Rules for Teenagers. The first two are “1. Life is not fair - get used to it!” and 2. “The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.” I think that telling kids “Life isn’t fair” doesn’t help, because the way people use it makes it sound like an excuse for something. Saying “get used to it” isn’t the right thing, because you are telling people to let something unfair stay unfair, instead of trying to fix it. I think kids should be raised to believe that life might not be fair, but we are the ones who have to do something to change that. 

After I got my participation trophy for doing a triathlon, I put it somewhere random. Now I can’t remember where I put it, and I don’t feel like looking for it, because it doesn’t really matter to me. I barely even remember getting it. When I got it, at the time, I felt proud, because it was an object that showed I had participated, and that I could swim, bike, and run. I was happy, because it was like someone was acknowledging that I had worked hard, but I didn’t feel like I could just get a trophy without doing work. Receiving a participation trophy when you are young will not make you fail when you are older, because it is just a trophy that makes you feel good about yourself, and it isn’t dangerous for kids to feel good about themselves.