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VPR's coverage of arts and culture in the region.

Young Writers Project: Teacher to Student/Student to Teacher- Winning/Losing

RETN
Alexandra Contreras-Montesano, a freshman at Burlington High School, writes about winning and losing from the perspectives of a teacher and a student.

To fail me, is to fail everything.
To fail me is to lose.

And losing is the one thing that no one tolerates.
Losing is the one thing I don't tolerate.
Losing is a sin,
and I don't accept sinners.

All is all
all is winning
and winning is all.

So I tell you to pride yourself in your accomplishments
and crush yourself with your losses
whatever they may be.

When you falter to make that last hit
and you find yourself on the ground
you will have known what it means to lose.

Losing is land’s end.
And I know they say that God created the Earth
but I damn well say, that I can destroy you.

Sometimes they call me God.
You know what I say?

Losing is a sin.
and I will make you pay for it.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I have heard your speech many times.
Before class and after class.

I have looked around to the faces of the people sitting next to me
and all I see is fear,
because as you say,
losing at all
is losing all.

There is nothing more that I would like than to lose.
Lose to you.

Because losing to you is like winning.
Because losing to you means winning things I never thought I could have.

Because losing is heaven and winning is hell.

And
I
wish
you
would
just
let
me
go.

Because winning is everything and when winning is everything,
winning is nothing.

And when you live in a world where winning is everything and nothing,
what is anything but losing?

Sometimes you have to lose
to remind yourself that you are still human.

Because losing to you
is like winning.

And I cherish every match I ever lost
because it reminds me of how
unlike you I am.

I hope I burn in the hell that your sin promises
because at least I will feel something
other than the endless nothing, and everything, of winning.

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