WNY – When It Comes To Trophies, Do You Keep ‘Em? Or Can ‘Em?

When we were little, earning a trophy was a real accomplishment.  It meant you had done something impressive.  But what do you do with them now?

Remember when you were a kid and you had to really work hard to earn a trophy?  Not everyone got one.  In sports especially, people would build cases to display all their trophies.  Now it feels like they're a dime a dozen.

But some have more meaning than others.

I stumbled across a trophy that was in a box at my house the other day which prompted a "what are you going to do with this thing?" statement from my wife.

It's one that I earned with my friend when we were just out of high school.  It wasn't a very big tournament but there were a lot of people from our town and a couple of neighboring towns that signed up.

Here's the reason why I hate to get rid of it:  It was a 3 on 3 tournament.  If you noticed above I said I earned it with my friend.  Singular.  We won it 2 on 3.

Normally 3 on 3 tournaments are made up of teams of 4 people.  It's 3 people with 1 sub to give someone a breather if they need it or to create different matchups.  We started the day with 4 players.  But one had just had surgery and when his parents found out that he was at the tournament immediately pulled him.  Then another got sick or hurt (I honestly can't remember) so it was down to just the two of us.

We could either give up and take 2nd place or...we could try with just the two of us.  Which is obviously what we did.  We ended up winning the whole thing with just the two of us.

That trophy is a physical representation of everything that has become a cliche these days.  Don't quit, hard work pays off, and you never know unless you try.  Plus it was earned with a close friend that is still friends with me today.

So what do you do with something like this?  Do you keep it?  Or do you can it?