Normal People Can Actually Do A Lot
Do you know normal people that do extraordinary things?
“Rooftop again?”, said my brother climbing up the stairs.
“Yeah”, I replied giving him a spot to sit next to me.
“Is everything fine?”, he said. He knows that everytime I get up there I’m not really that fine. I had some unsolved questions coming and going on my head, which is not a frequent thing, but still, I wasn’t sad at all.
“Yeah, I’m just… wondering.”
“What exactly you’re wondering?”
“Nah, I don’t know if I told you but… the last time I went out with my friends we kinda had a networking moment and some of them introduced me as a blogger.”
“… So?”
“I don’t know. I felt very happy but still I’m not sure this kind of title they attributed to me professionaly suits me.”
“What do you mean?”, he said looking straight at me.
“What are the things that come up on your head once you hear the word ‘blogger’? Don’t it kinda makes you feel like all the things that I do are kinda about me and not about everyone else?”
“I don’t know. You have a page, you share stuff. You share your personal experiences and ideas over subjects so, what’s wrong?”
“Don’t know, seems selfish. Press isn’t supposed to be selfish.”
“You can be press and also be a blogger. You can do both.”
“I’m okay with press but maybe bloggers were supposed to be important people and not me.”
“Look, do you remember years ago when you said that having aspenger would never make me a loser, but if I acted like so then my attitude would make me look like and eventually become a loser and not the fact of having a problem itself?”
“Yeah.”
“This thing you’re saying, that’s such a loser thinking. Don’t act loser. I mean, why do you visit personal blogging pages and why do you go on YouTube sometimes and watch other people’s vlogs?”
“What?”
“Why do read personal blogs and why do you watch people vlogging? What makes you want to see someone talking about their lives if it doesn’t have anything to do with you?”
“Maybe I like them as people?”
“Do you have fun reading and watching them? Do you relate to them?”
“Yeah, a lot.”
“OK, so imagine if someone goes to your blog not to see that Derrival band is on a break, nor that Adam Bohn has new plans for a game, nor whatever. What if some people go to your blog because just like you watch to see people because you like them, what if they come read whatever you write because they like you, because they relate to you, your feelings and your ideas?”
“But…”
“But what? That’s completely fine. That can happen.”
I kept in silence.
“Do you remember what you told me once you got back from the Presidential Debate and I asked you how the presidential candidates were like?”
“Yes”, I said.
“And what did you say?”
“I said they were all normal. Just normal people standing there. Trying to keep focused, trying to deal with pressure and trying to hide their insecureness and fears among all that press, all those cameras and just stay strong.”
“How did you know it? How did you feel it from them?”
“I have seen them. I was there, I was at their side. I didn’t say anything but I observe a lot.”
“And so, what they are?”
“Normal people.”
“What are you?”
“A normal person.”
“So?”
“Normal people can do a lot”, I said.
“So what do you take from it?”
“Normal people can breakthrough. Normal people can reach places and positions we don’t even dream of…”, I said. “Normal people can do extraordinary things, Nick.”
“I know. So what keeps you from being extraordinary?”
I looked back at him, in silence.
“You”, he said. “You keep yourself from being extraordinary because sometimes you don’t believe in yourself enough to reach the places you know you can.”
I remained silent a bit, thinking.
“Do you know normal people that do extraordinary things?”, he asked.
“Yeah”, I said. “I know. I really do.”
He remained silent as I gathered each person and every reason I admire each one of them and how much I also don’t know if they know how amazing they are. It doesn’t matter if coding, making videos, cartoons, entertaining people, writing, interviewing, reinventing themselves, helping others, photographing, cooking, game-developing or just overcoming issues and inspiring others. It doesn’t matter the title they carry or the title people attribute to them — they do what they do, and they are hella fucking amazing doing whatever they do. And the list go far beyond the pictures.
Fortunately, for me, when I close my eyes and think about everyone I admire for the most diverse reasons, I can call most of them friends. And if they’re able to do so many extraordinary things, why couldn’t I?
“C’mon, let your fears go, kid.”
“Uhm, ‘kid’? Acting all ‘big-bro’ now, dude?”, I smiled goofy at him as I lightly punched his arm.
“Sure doe. I’m a lot taller than you. Look at this, I got a beard!”, he said smiling back at me with dork face. “C’mon, let’s get down.”
I looked at my brother, 15 years old sitting on the roof right at my side. He could be doing whatever, but he realized I wasn’t at home and went after me. He realized I wasn’t 100% okay, and he did not care that the reason behind the way I was feeling down was stupid.
He gathered everything he knew about life to make me reflect and find the way out of a problem that only existed inside my head. And for me, that made him even more extraordinary.
