Sydney Rosario ’23 and Emma Silva ’23. Names you wouldn’t expect to be preceded by the title “losers.”

However, it’s the cold hard truth. We have never won Red and Gold.

But, hey, at least we are losers together.

Picture us: brace-faced and bright-eyed freshmen, selected to participate in Red team’s production. Oh, Lord. And participate we did. Before we got the shot to debut our sick dance moves (and likely cement our spots as Rosary’s most talented dancers), Covid-19 crushed our chances of winning, and ultimately, our dreams.

That’s fine, we had three more tries to become victors of Red and Gold!

Sophomore year. Emma is selected to be a script captain. Sydney is selected to once again dance. Both of us lose on the Gold team. The sting was more painful this time around. Emma, having written the losing script, was crushed. Sydney, having donned a girl-scout uniform and boogied to “Kids in America,” was equally as crushed.

Junior year rolls around. We are both selected to be captains. Emma is given a shot at redemption when she is awarded the position as one of Red’s script captains. Sydney is crowned as one of Red’s fashion captains.

We actually got to know each other during this production. We bonded over our mutual stress and thirst for victory. Though we gained a friendship, we lost another year of bragging rights.

Alas, once again, our thirst was not quenched. Losers, once again.

Senior year. One last shot to become beholders of the Red and Gold crown. Sydney was promoted to HEAD fashion captain.

Emma, once again, a script captain. We were glittering in gold. Both of us were in, as the kids say, our “joker era.” We were desperate to win and craving that sweet gold confetti to shoot out of those darn cannons. Emma spent hours laboring on what she hoped would be a winning script. Sydney spent hours scrolling through Shein until her poor little thumbs were bruised. Not to mention the miles she ran running around with a measuring tape, focused on getting the most accurate costume sizes of all time. These were costumes were gonna sparkle.

But, no. Fate had other plans. The cannons shot red, and we both cried.

At least we had each other to turn to for consolation hugs.

Though we had a fifty-fifty chance of winning, two years on Red and the other two on Gold, fate proved to be unpredictable their enemy.

Some say to us, “Do you think this means you both will come back to teach at Rosary? Fulfilling the prophecy that four-year losers return back to Rosary?” Who knows? Maybe we will, maybe we won’t.

Losing is the worst. There is no sugar-coating it. But we are winners at heart.

And we would lose again and again if it meant we got to make the friendship we did.

So if you’re currently in a losing streak, don’t fret; don’t lose hope. The friendships you make will be way more memorable than the result of a friendly competition.

Here’s to the losers of Red and Gold, and the friendships they’ve made.