The Kalesa's Competence (April 8,2008)

The Kalesa’s Competence
By: Maria Reylan M. Garcia

She stood at the middle of the studio. I was sitting crossed-legged on the bed, hugging my pillow. Her face was wrinkled in tension; her knees wobbled in fear and her fingernails already nibbled in anxiety. I seemed to have finished two packs of potato chips; I took the remote control and adjusted the volume. The quizmaster repeated the question once more; he seems to be pleased at how the lady trembles in apprehension. I held my fingers crossed and kept on repeating the correct answer, as I knew it too well. She gulped heavily and wiped her hands soaked in sweat, pulled out her index finger and pushed the button. I heaved a sigh of disappointment, stripped open the third junk food and watch her lose the one hundred thousand dollar question. Often times you just can’t help but to virtually join the contestant on television and pretend you’re in the quiz show too. That lady proved to be competitive for reaching such a high level, while I proved to be competent for answering rightly that question.

Competent and Competitive, the root word seems to be similar but after adding some affixes the meaning repels each other. The lady was competitive as she was in the zone of proving to millions of viewers that she is intelligent and is worth that one hundred thousand dollars. I was competent as I was in the zone of proving to myself I knew the answer even if no one was with me at that time. Competence is different from competition, and most of time, we tend to interchange their definitions. The way I see it, you can be competent without being competitive, but you can’t be competitive without being competent. There are only few competent people who decide to remain competent rather than competitive, I admire them. But, a large number of people are nowhere near competent but decide to be competitive, I wonder why.

Forgive my ecstatic mind, I see things differently. Our society has a nature to be competitive, so we train and exhaust more effort to bring out the best and the most exemplary produce that we can offer to global market. But, competence lies on satisfaction and confidence with oneself, without it one will just remain to be competitive, to do all means to run ahead of everybody. A competent person has that knowledge that he is competent and whether he competes or not, he’s assured of himself that sooner or later he can be a self actualized individual. I see 1,289 new lawyers joining the law firms of our country and abroad, may they be more competent and less competitive. The have proven themselves competitive besting the other 4,337 others who failed to procure the title of attorney, but competence lies in each of their own workplaces, of their relation to others, of their consistency, of their satisfaction.

I admit, I always wanted to be the best. Who doesn’t? In each of us lies a spirited urge of competition. I wanted to run ahead of everyone. I get competitive. But you know what, at the end of the day those medals, promotions, and even cash prizes would simply be temporary. Sure everyone left behind you will admire you for your amazing accomplishments but, it will only last for some minutes and hours. The next year there will come more competition, more achievers such as yourself who’ll run the race like you did, thus you won’t stop from racing and being competitive. Being competent is also competing, but it is a competition with no other contestants rather than yourself.

If we continue to be competitive, we might lose track of our own competition and in the end wonder why even if we got everything we raced for, none seem to be satisfying. There is a great lesson we see from our local kalesas. You know why there’s a pair of covering called blinders or winkers that forbids the horses to look on the sides? Their drivers wanted them to remain focused on the road, refrain from looking at other kalesas so they won’t compete against them, and blinding them from all the distractions. Yes, their drivers wanted them to be competent kalesas rather than competitive kalesas.

There’s a difference between competitive and competent.
The latter seems better.