Member-only story
you don’t have to be special to feel like you’re special
there is no universal benchmark for human excellence, and there shouldn’t be.
There’s something so painfully revealing about becoming an adult. At some point, I realise that I am extraordinarily, phenomenally normal.
I don’t have any particular talents. I don’t play any instrument. My drawing skill matches that of a 6-year-old. I’m not exceptionally good at sports either. I speak two languages, but one of them is English, so who counts? I can’t even confidently say that I have good taste in music or fashion or anything in particular.
And this bothered me more than I’d like to admit. Because I thought I was supposed to be special.
I grew up with stories about seemingly ordinary people discovering that they were anything but ordinary. A bullied kid who uncovered his superpowers. An overlooked girl who became the prodigy by sheer force of determination. Even the supporting casts have their own specialties.
When you are a kid, it’s easy to assume that you will eventually embody the same image — the main character, the hero, the one who suffers but always overcomes.
Yet, here I am. Fully grown and fully ordinary. No secret talent reveals itself. No major achievement to change the world.
