We are not so special.
Adulthood taught me one thing. No one is special. I mean, if everyone is special then no one is, right?
From childhood, we have been wired to believe that we are special. Well, every parent thinks their children are special. We grow up thinking that something makes us different from other children. That there is something about our whole being that sets us apart in this ordinary world, within ordinary beings. That having everything we want within our reach means that there is something special about us.
As I said, adulthood taught me otherwise. Growing up, I was always one of the top students in my class. In high school, I was top two in a class of more than a hundred students. Literature was my plaything, I wanted to become an author. I told myself that all I had to do was write, read and gain admission into the University and everything would fall into place.
You see, life had other plans for me. Life came with fisticuffs, ready to show me confam pepper!
The first knockout came after high school. I was unable to gain admission in the very first year of trying. Not that I didn’t pass Jamb, it just didn’t happen. When I finally did, I got in for Sociology-which was my fault. I chose the wrong subject combination in Jamb.
Life topped it up with me breaking my left humerus in a road accident which made it paralysed for nine months so, I wasn’t able to attend classes for four months.
When I resumed school, I tried to catch up on a course I had no interest in. Exams came and went and results finally came out. I did well but I wasn’t top of my class. A wave of self-doubt washed over me. Maybe I wasn’t that good but the four years in the university went that way. Just above average. Nothing special.
Over the years, I’ve met people better than me in every way and just like me; they have hopes, aspirations, fears, they have people they also look up to that are better than them.
Which makes me think that no matter how much we want to be or feel special, we are all just ordinary people, better at some things than others.
So, maybe we are not so special. Unique might be the right word we are looking at.
