Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Mediocrity.

I had a friend from college. Smart guy (though not as smart as I [not kidding]) who supposedly uttered the following sentence:

"I revel in my own mediocrity"


When I heard this, I realized that although I never felt the need to fit in, I had lied to myself. I secretly wanted to be known as someone who is at least a bit better than average. This sentence however, changed my attitude. I didn't want to fool myself anymore, I would not change my behavior for anyone or anything, because this is who I am.

The next time I met the guy, he had gotten into a very prestigious b-school in India. Gee! I wonder which one could that be?
So anyway, I remembered this 'aphorism' of his and asked him about it.

The funny part is that he denied it. Outright.

It was like Aribert Heim denying his role in the holocaust, that is when I realized that it was actually a shield to protect him from possible future failure(he had made the thing up when he was still without an achievement that meant something to the rest of the world, and now that he had gotten into the school, he would not need that excuse anymore), now this 'shielding oneself' is something that I do too, albeit in different matters, I would have explained further but I have sworn not to bring up that topic.

That is probably the instant when I went from merely disliking people who fake things to absolutely hating them. So my point is; 'one life, so don't waste it fooling yourself'

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