If you are a member of my generation, you are probably familiar with the rhyme that got shouted a lot when teams were being picked in elementary school: "First is the worst, second is the best, third is the one with the treasure chest."
It was a handy way to make yourself feel better if no one really wanted you on her kickball team. "I might be last, but I AM RICH." And it also gave the last pick some ammunition against that [annoying] first pick.
It's nothing more than a funny rhyme made up somewhere in history's basement, amusing, useful, outgrown, but it does contain a modicum of usefulness later in life.
I just read the following on Thought Catalog: Yes, you are now going to have to go somewhere else to read something else.
The first thing that came to mind was "Holy shit, first is the worst, second is the best."
(Not kidding. This should give you a sense of my level of maturity.)
There is something to be said for trial runs - how they are magical and eye-opening and how they also often suck the worst out of all the times you do something. The first time I rode a bike, I felt like I was flying, but I also fell over sideways and hurt my knee. The first time I shaved my legs, I felt cool, smooth, and adult, but I took a big gash out of my ankle. The first time I put on mascara, I felt like I was entering into a new phase of existence, one where I had sexy eyes, but I also jabbed myself in the eye. And the first time I fell in love, truly fell in love, I felt beautifully insane and wonderfully lost, but I also felt every jarring impact as the rosiness shattered at the end.
Truth is, we hurt ourselves by clinging to the notion that "first" is somehow equated with "most special" or "most influential." We delude ourselves into thinking that if we make a mistake the first time we do something, or that if the first time we do something, it fails to go according to plan, we've somehow broken the universe.
Truth is, no, you can't get the first time for anything back. Ever. But you also can't get the second time, or the third time, or the fifteenth time back, either. At the end of the day, the order doesn't matter. At the end of the day, all that matters is the experience. And each experience is ALWAYS going to be different, unique, and staunchly itself.
