I started to notice it when I was about 13, but I believed what my parents used to tell me and that was “practice makes perfect.” So I just kept practicing. Whether it was my school work or sports, I continued to work and practice to be the best I could be. It didn’t become painfully clear until college. That is where I discovered that I am average. I am utterly and completely average in everything that I do. Here is my proof, in high school I graduated with decent grades, I wasn’t at the top of my class but I wasn’t at the bottom either. Applying for colleges was stressful because my GPA was never as good as I had wanted it to be. I’m now attending the college that my counselor told me would be my “reach school.” I’m guessing that I got in because they liked all of my extracurricular activities; I laugh and wonder if they knew that I was average at those as well. I played varsity sports in high school, but I was never a starter and never the star of the team, but being a part of them made me feel so incredibly important. I didn’t attempt to play them in college because I now solely focus on my grades and school work, this is in hope that all the hard work pays off and I can eventually have an above average job.

Just in case you thought it this was going to be an article where I list all of the things I don’t excel at and then feel bad about myself, it’s not because believe it or not I enjoy being average. I like to think of myself as Vanilla ice cream. I know how strange that sounds, and how one might giggle at the mere thought of it, and I also know that vanilla ice cream is plain and there is nothing too special about it. But this is how I like to think about it, vanilla was the very first ice cream flavor and it is a fan favorite. There will never be a time that you go to an ice cream parlor and they don’t have vanilla. And it is my personal favorite because you can add almost anything to it. Vanilla ice cream is average, and it’s original. That is how I feel about myself. You will never meet someone just like me, not someone that acts just like me or looks just like me. I may not be the absolute best at every little thing that I do but that has never stopped me from trying, and it has definitely never stopped me from finishing something. I strive to be the best I can be and refuse to believe I have already plateaued. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being average. To be average means there is room for improvement without having to fail, in math you’re the mean, and in life, you’re the majority. In my eyes, all the best people are.