A stunning announcement

I am competetive.
Very competetive.
I suffer from an overwhelming need to win.

Yesterday I went skiing.
With a good skier.
I can get down the mountain without dying, if I go slow. In fact, near Spring, I feel pretty good about my skiing abilities. But this winter I haven't skiied at all, until yesterday. This means that I am alarmingly out of practice.
Now, do you think I told my sweet expert-skier friend that I need to get into the hang of it before tackling a large mountain? I did not. Rather, I followed where she led and cursed her in my mind.
The weather was horrible. There was zero (I mean Absolute Zero) visability because of the fog. The snow was falling fast and sharp, like shards of glass on all exposed skin. The wind was cruel. And there was powder.
Lots of powder.
I hate powder, because I have no idea how to turn in it.
So, in these conditions even the most basic runs were way over my head. I should have gone straight to the bunny hill until I felt confident. Did I? I did not.
And my friend? She was all smiles, and she kept exclaiming, "This is so fun!" and I would grimace and grit my teeth. She was so sweet, though. She would ski down and then turn to watch every wobble of my painful decent. Then she'd ski down a bit further, and watch some more.
Finally, I lost it. I had a full on break down. The poor girl never saw it coming. I was all angry and in tears and choking out eloquent speech like, "This sucks! I am NOT having fun. I hate this." I managed to both make myself clear, and make an ass of myself all at the same time. It's a gift.
She immediately bought me a drink. Hot Cocoa with Rumplemitz, which could make anyone's day. After two of those, and a bit of decompression, I was in a better mood. The clouds lifted, both literally and figuratively. The sun came out. And guess who was skiing better?
The rest of the afternoon was a complete blast. I stopped trying to compete, and started to enjoy what we were doing.
I have got to get over my need to keep up with everyone else. It's that need to compete and to win. It makes me a jerk, if you want to know the truth. Nobody else seems to care whether or not I am superior. I am the one who has something to prove. And where does that come from?