0174 – Happily ordinary

Here is what my friend wrote for a college essay class,

‘What I hoped was that I would end up in ordinary college and become normal employee at the company that no one knows about.
When I was in my secondary school, I didn’t care much about what I did. I just know what I need to know and do what I have to do, and that’s it, nothing more.
I didn’t care about what the others expect from me at all. However, when I grow up, I also change. I began to understand that in this real world, nothing would come to me if I don’t try to get it. I think more about my future, my education, and my life.  Then I realized that I don’t want to be just like that, doing nothing. I want to be more than someone out there. I want to be the one that is important to this world, the one that will be proud of what he has done.’

It struck me as a particularly important point. There are over 6 billion lives on this planet and it is extremely hard to be noticed. Can I be happily ordinary?

I’ve also always wanted to be somebody great, like a president or something, but now that’s out. Not going in that direction no longer. Maybe I’ll invent something – something that will revolutionize the world. A new form of energy, perhaps. You’ll never know. Anyhow, these are lofty ambitions. I might fail.

Failures hit us hard. We don’t wanna fail. People’ve written books on how failures are constructive if you have the right attitude.

You know, I can actually be proud of myself without being ‘somebody’ to the world; I can be ‘somebody’ to myself.

Maybe I’m aiming too high? In reality, I’m always the one who sets humble goals for myself, so as to minimize the chance of disappointment and rejoice if I exceed expectations. Often times, I do exceed them because no matter what goal I set, I secretly have my sights on the best.

So, maybe I am ambitious. I’m very driven, and that’s made me very egocentric sometimes. I’m not proud of myself that way. It’s not the somebody that I wanna be. I’m not really sure who I wanna be. A simple life with a cute family seems very appealing – the happily ordinarily guy. Yet, one must be very proud to receive thunderous applause and praises from the populace – the happily famous guy. Yet, there’s also the stress and the enemies that pester the happily famous.

Well, whichever I choose become (I don’t think I have much of a choice.), I’m hoping that I don’t regret not being the other guy. But I’ll never know till I’m there.

What about you. Happily ordinary, or happily famous?