nilichoandika

I am seated on this leather seat, cosy, warm and my stomach is so full of yogurt that I feel the urge to sleep. It’s been a long and busy day. The kind of day where I met seventy new people, had to create some group dynamics and set aside some work related rules and regulations.

It’s also the day I realized that I would not make a trip I had planned for the end of this month.

It’s nothing much, you’d say, but have you ever written yourself off simply based on the kind of life other people presented to you?

Saying “I can never be that beautiful,” or “I can’t have such flat abs,” “I can’t have that job or make that kind of money.”

As we were getting teams ready and all, someone stood up and after saying his name, this young cheerful man added “I am doing nothing, so, unlike most of you here who are busy doing things, I am doing nothing.”

The whole room laughed. They laughed until he sat down but during lunch break, I sat next to him and asked him “what do you focus on when you are not say, working for someone or looking to work for someone?” He shrugged and said “I actually sketch stuff, you know using pencil or coal and it’s nothing much but I love it.”

I asked him if I could see his sketches and he pulled out his phone and showed me a gallery of beautiful works that he had done and some that he had sold to his friends on campus and other parish members at his church.

I am no Picasso.

I am no Sketch Artist but I loved what I saw and more so, I respected the hours and clarity he put in his work. But, his utterance in the morning session reminded me of all the times I wrote myself off.

It’s easy to compare yourself to people based on what they project or the image they show you and it’s even easier to go the extra mile to try and be like them.

It’s easy because copying has never been difficult, it’s being an original and staying true to yourself that takes grit and a lifetime.

So, before you write yourself off, please give yourself some time. Take a step back. Talk to yourself (yes, do it😉). Give yourself the award or medal for being uniquely you and live your life.

Whenever I feel like a failure, my Mom’s words always come back to me “life is being on a race track, you are guaranteed two things, a start and a finish, it’s what you do in between that matters, and no race was ever won by running in someone’s lane or by constantly looking over your shoulder to see if your opponent is catching up.”