You know how it's said that children are narcissists or psychopaths or whatever? I actually remember the moment that stopped being the case for me.

It must have been kindergarten, and we had a raffle style drawing in class. I knew I would win of course, I remember thinking that.

Then some other kid won. Blew my mind. It was at that moment that it really hit me that other people have fully independent lives and minds, just like mine, and the universe didn't exist for my benefit. (Of course before that, if you had asked me I'm sure I would have said those things, but didn't actually feel it intuitively until right then).

I feel like experiencing a loss (which wasn't my own fault) was a very significant part of my mental development at that age, and I think it's important for people to get that while growing up.

We can't in fact all be winners. To quote a great philosopher:

"It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life."