[Kims Robot]

Disappointment is hard. I'd even go so far as to say it sucks... But as your story lends, it is a perfect indicator of who we really are.

In my many years, I've been on two teams that never won a single award, and a team that "won every award under the sun" (seemingly). And every single year brought amazing highs and amazing lows for each team. Trophies or not, we had some amazing successes and some amazing stories every year.

For me, I've found that I go through a cycle. Sometimes it's longer than others, but generally it maps to the same exact cadence. And I think it nearly mirrors your story above.
1. The initial shock of the disappointment sets in...
2. Then the annoyance and outward blame hits my mind ("that team cheated", "they did this to sabotage us", "the judges were biased")...
3. Then the realization and inward blame hits me ("I didn't do enough", "I should have...", "I missed...", "That was stupid of me to think...")...
4. And then I fall back into the moment... the "What can I do right now", which usually lends to picking myself back up and making the situation right, fun, better, etc...
5. And the last stage is the shear determination to do better next year, and my mind will start racing with new ideas, new plans, improvements, changes, fixes, etc.

I will note that I generally go through stages 1-4 incredibly quickly now, and generally 5 hits in less than 24 hours. I think a lot of this came from being a team leader and having to "put on that face". I realized that everything I did, every emotion I showed carried into my team... so it was up to me to lead them in the right attitude. And honestly the true challenge and the most fun for me was in hitting stage 5.

I think its ok to acknowledge that many of us hit stage 2. Its just something the mind does. But its how we get past that helps define how strong we are. If you allow yourself to wallow there for any length of time, it can eat at you. You can get stuck in the rut of comparisons, the rut of jealously or the rut of aggravation. I've had moments or days like this, but in the end, my determination to compete, to win, to do better always won out.

And because it's so close to home, I will tie it back to the events in Boston for a moment. I think this city has shown amazing resolve, and everything I have been paying attention to has been of the amazing stories that have come out of this situation. I had several friends that work in the city, and several that were at the marathon, including one of my former students. The initial shock and fear set in as everyone tried to check with friends and family, but as we located eachother quickly thanks to the wonders of social media today, I started to see a few hints of the "we must hurt whomever did this", but then it started turning to the amazing stories of people helping eachother, people taking in displaced runners, people giving people rides home, restaurants donating food, people generally taking care of eachother. And the realization that there was just a calm resolve to help everyone in the moment and move through all of this together.

And while two very very different types of events (in fact perspective is a beautiful thing), you can see that its how we deal with the situations put in front of us, the disappointments, and the opportunities to do better and rise above those disappointments that really show who we are.