When was the last time you went for a walk? It’s a little tricky these days, but let’s do it.
Welcome to Memory Lane.
Top shelf. Right side. A bottle of glue or a jar of peanut butter, which one will it be? Seven-year-old you, looking up from your tippy toes, wondering how you’re going to get your hands on it. That was your first remarkable feat and one of the many to come.
Play the scene where you’re dragging a chair across the living room—your first taste of independence is sweeter than all the honey in the world. You told mom and dad what you had accomplished. Of course, a lecture about falling and injuries was a must. But, after that, they began giving you the big-girl assignments. Ah, fulfilling the role of the big girl now. Your heart started wearing the smile that would put the Cheshire Cat out of business.
Memory number two. Open skies, grassy fields, you, and a soccer ball. You step back, slowly at first, like a slingshot gathering momentum. Then you charged forward and sent the ball hurtling. That was the first time you thought, “Hey, I can do this.” And it was as if all the world had burst open into an ocean of possibilities.
The You in ‘adequate’
Now, back to the present.
Tell me, dear reader, where are you now with your dreams? Where do you go when the moon is awake with you?
Now you question your own strength and God-given talents. You question the very ground you tread your feet upon, mistaking it for deceitful quicksand—as if everything that exists is waiting to consume you. All it takes is one screw-up. And worst of all is the doubt that settles in your mind at the end of every day.
“Maybe I am not as good as I thought I was. Maybe that teacher in sixth grade was wrong about me. Maybe Louisa May-Alcott was right, talent isn’t genius. And if I kept behind the lines I have drawn for myself; I will never know the answer to my own questions. ”
Here’s where you could be right. Maybe you aren’t what you thought you were. If you stayed in your comfort zone, you’re never going to find out the immaterial thing that sits inside your vessel of flesh.
Now, I want to ask you something important, and I hope you don’t skip it.
The million-dollar question is…who are you going to be?
from the writer
If your heart is content in the comfort zone, then that’s fine. This is a good place to leave things off, but you can come back anytime.
Oh, you’re still here? That’s amazing! Brace yourself. I’m about to go Les Brown on the remainder of this post.
“You are you, and that is your superpower.”
You’re not Frida Kahlo. You’re not going to be the next Kendall Jenner, or the new Einstein, or the successor to Shakespeare’s ‘Most Popular Writer Ever Lived’ title.
Sometimes, we’re too busy chasing the shadow of the greats that we forget we have our own place under the sun.
You are a one-time cosmic event, divinely orchestrated for the purpose that is yours. The world has not seen anything in the likes of you and will never see anything like you again. I believe each one of us is here for a reason.
I know it might sound ridiculous. Some of you might even find it nearly impossible to gobble up as something believable. The boulder that is self-doubt, insecurity, and feelings of inadequacy make the path more difficult to see.
It’s time to go back to the story of you reaching for the jar of peanut butter.
You know, if you take every story that has ever been told and peel away the layers, you’ll find that all stories are one and the same. From the villain who found redemption to the shepherd boy who walked a great distance because of a dream—they’re telling you the same thing.
That maybe Frida Kahlo didn’t always feel like she was adequate in all her undertakings. Maybe in all of Shakespeare’s brilliance, he never would’ve imagined that his words would become an unparalleled body of works that continue to flow in the current of Time.
Perhaps, the point of this all isn’t to be the best or to feel adequate a hundred percent of the time.
Maybe the point is, wherever we are and whoever we are, we grow to fill the roles we are meant to play. You don’t always have to be the best, the brightest, or the strongest.
You only have to be.
