Once upon a time, I woke up feeling ambitious and said to myself "I want to run for school sports day". With much practice I made it into finals as a representative of my sports house (blue). I was 16 and unlike the current me, I was very thin (BMI 18) and undoubtedly at the very pinnacle of my health. If there were to be any instance in my life that I could have ran faster, it was then. The bitter truth however, is that I was nowhere near the strength and agility of my fellow competitors. If they were to start from 5 feet farther, they would still smoke me with ease. On the race day, I was nervous. My goal was to run for the event, which I have already achieve. Now what? I felt like a lost foal on a field of stallions. With their eyes fixated on the finishing line, flexing muscles and stretching their legs, I slowly took my starting position amongst them. I then said to myself, run as fast as my feet will, throw every inch of my body forward, and do the very best I can. There will be no regrets. . .
The countdown began. My heart was beating so hard that the pulsation extinguished the voices and cheers of the crowd. Blood was racing through my veins and the only thought that came into mind, was to have a flawless launch, an impeccable start. All senses were reduced to nothing as my body in its desperate measures elevated my hearing capability as it tries to concentrate on the starting gunfire. It wasn't just about knowing when to start, it was also reacting to it. I was afraid that the lack of competitive experience might cause my body give up. Now wouldn't that be embarrassing? Luckily, in all that chaos, my feet left the ground at precise timing. I was soon flooded with tranquillity as I recollect the fact that I did not come here to compete. I was here to participate. I am not an athlete, I am a science nerd! I did better than two others but that was not my concern at all. At that point in time, I was happy due to the fact that I achieved something that I wanted to do.
The END
Kidding, I haven't made my point yet. See there were easily a thousand pair of eyes spectating, and positively a thousand perspectives. Of that thousands, there might have only been a few that actually did notice me, who populated the back-end of the herd. People who knew the nerdy me would have thought that I was pretty courageous and felt proud of me. The ones that didn't, might have laughed at me for even trying. I was fast, but not nearly as fast enough. People were cheering on the runner ups but they themselves might be very sad, for they were merely a split second away from gold and glory. I on the other hand couldn't be any happier.
The above story has very little to do with what I wanted to write about but it helped me reminisce the past. Haha. So here's the real deal. From the very beginning we were brought up to compete. Most of our parents often compare us with our siblings, cousins or even the kids in the neighbourhood. You might think it's normal, but there is more to it than just that. It basically changes the way we view life. Most of our goals and milestones are fixed around these mentality, consciously or subconsciously. We have to be careful with the choice of our words as we can offend people very easily. A man who says "my business isn't doing as good as expected" might be labelled pretentious by his friend who might be going through rough times. Being completely truthful may also accidentally rub people the wrong way. For example, a top student can never openly admit the exams were easy. This would then probably leave a social scar on said student's life for years. Subconsciously we all act in a way that works out the best for ourselves. And this is done by respecting the law of relativity.
When was the last time you did something for yourself without worrying about a set of standards you must achieve just because somebody said so? Have you pushed yourself to the limits for something that would make you happy but be of no value to another? Is leaving the best impression so important that you must lose yourself? Are you living the way you want, or the way you were forged to? Have you missed out on something you yearned for just because you were shy? Have you ever loved someone for who they are without comparing that person to another, even for a second?
Then again, is your perspective the only one that matters? :)
Life - a matter of perspective
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