Nate Kovacs

What's up? My name is Nathan Kovacs but I've gone by Nate since I was born. The rare instance I am called Nathan is by my mom when I have made an oopsie. I'm a senior at Troy High School in Troy, Michigan.

I think the main thing that anyone should know about me is that I'm a pretty chill guy- I'm (almost) always relaxed. This wasn't a trait I was born with. In reality, I was born extremely uptight. All of that changed, however, when I learned the art of losing.

Most people would not refer to little league baseball as a life changing experience and they are probably right in doing that. It's just a fun pastime for most younger kids. Emphasis on most. You see, my team was special. We lost almost every single game for years on end. We just weren't good. Every game we would be humiliated and the run limit per inning would always be reached by the other team. I have a special memory of pitching and walking every batter until they scored five runs.

Needless to say, our losses were frustrating at first. The third grade me would go home in tears after being blown out in yet another game. But as the years went by, things changed. I don't know why our parents kept on making us go back to the team, but they did and the losing continued. By then, I was used to it and had realized that I had little ability in the sport: I jumped back at every pitch because I was scared to get hit. In this experience, I learned two things. One was that the underdog doesn't always come back. Years of being the underdog with an impressive loss streak showed me Hollywood was lying. The second was accepting failure.

You see, before this, my uptight self was so scared of failure that I would avoid it at all costs. The constant losses broke that kid's idea of being perfect and taught him acceptance with losing. Wow that sounds sad, but I promise it isn't. While this might not have started a comeback story in baseball for me- I quit in the sixth grade to be able to read more (true story)- I was able to apply this elsewhere and still do.

Failure is inevitable, whether in baseball, elections, or applications. What most people seem to miss is that it is a mandatory lesson to bring on greater highs. I've had to bounce back (a lot) but I always get back up. And maybe if everyone received the blessing of losing every game in their childhood, the world would be a better place.