School of Life
Life is always teaching us diverse lessons and one of the major lessons it teaches us is not to die while living but to keep on living even while we are dead. I had seen the Movie School of life of recent (starring Ryan Reynolds) and it had driven home some very salient point.
I hope you are aware that there is just one of your kind on earth? There might be someone somewhere that looks like you do but they aren’t you. Some years back I had realized I was living in other peoples shadow and so had many of us, there is someone somewhere we always wished we were like or someone somewhere you always thought was better than you. I know this for certain because I have been there, but am writing this to let you know that you are unique, you were created for a purpose only you can fulfill.
Don’t get me wrong, am not saying there shouldn’t be people you look up to, there isn’t anything wrong with having a Mentor or a Role Model but then it becomes wrong when we want to be their exact replica, we begin to live in their shadows and at that very moment we stop living. Unconsciously we tell ourselves we are not good enough and no matter how better we get, the feeling of falling short is always present. Some cases is as bad as wanting to talk as they do, to walk or even sit as they do, picking good habit is a wonderful thing, but becoming obsessed isn’t.
Although, majority of us had identity crisis while growing up, some people out grow it while some don’t. I remember while I was in elementary school there was one of my teacher I would have given anything to be like, ask me now if I want to I would reject it with all that’s within me. Way back in high school I had a class mate which was quite intelligent, I wasn’t dull either, but he tops my class all the time while I was always either second place or third, I was so obsessed with been like him that I didn’t truly enjoyed my stay in high school, I hardly smiled, had just one friend, socializing wasn’t in my dictionary, just because I wanted to be someone else, I was quite plump and this added to my insecurity. While I was obsessed with being him, he was having a great time being himself. If I had the opportunity to turn back the hands of time and relive those years I would have lived it differently for I wasn’t living then I merely existed, I can’t have the opportunity again, for time used cannot be regained, it becomes lost forever.
My story is just one of many examples of our struggles of walking in another’s shadows, but the truth is if the creator had wanted you to be like Mr. X then he wouldn’t have created you, if he had wanted you to fulfill the same purpose as Mr. X then what’s the need for you.
We were all created uniquely to fulfill a unique purpose, there is no one else on earth that has your DNA this single fact establishes your uniqueness. If we look closely we will realize that those people we strongly want to be like have their own struggles which they hardly share, struggles which we will never wish for on ourselves, if only we knew them.
Next time you struggle in another man’s shadow, next time you feel the shoe is too big, take a pause, look within and discover who you really are. For life is always waiting to teach us about ourselves, to discover and truly live.
