You can be outstanding without being exceptional.
Today’s generation houses some of the brightest minds in history. I’m sure you’ve heard about 15-year-old Gitanjali Rao, the world’s youngest inventor, or 9-year-old Laurent Simons, studying electrical engineering at the TUE. They, among others, are the face of the future.
Or are they?
Don’t get me wrong — I doubt neither their credibility nor their genius. They are brilliant, and absolutely deserve to be recognized for it.
We just shouldn’t put them on a pedestal, and consequently put everyone else belonging to their generation on one as well. Because when that happens, those who don’t belong to this elite category aren’t enough anymore. It isn’t possible for them to meet society’s startlingly high standards, especially when crushed by the weight of expectation. Being ordinary is no longer accepted: you have to be better. This, of course, makes better the new ordinary, creating an endless paradox that serves no one but the degradation of self-worth.
You don’t have to be better to be fantastic. Someone else’s win isn’t your loss. Life is an endless race to top, but like all other races, you can opt to sit it out. What’s the point of a contest if no one’s going to watch it? Not everyone can be a Sherlock Holmes. Some will have to be John Watsons. And really, who is Sherlock without his Watson?
Those who are climbing the mountain are important, yes, but so are those who stand in the sidelines, cheering them on. Even if you aren’t the singer, you could be an instrumentalist in the background, without whom the music would be incomplete.
No one person is worth more than another.
Other’s accomplishments don’t define you. Yours do. That you won’t go down in history doesn’t mean you aren’t leaving your mark. You don’t have to be the main character in someone else’s story.
You have your own story to write.
