Recently, I started re-watching one of my favorite shows, "Everybody Hates Chris." When I was a kid, I enjoyed the depiction of a family like mine, with a cheap dad who worked all the time, a mom who was continually threatening to slap her kids into another family and a kid who got to leave his neighborhood to be the only black kid at his school. It was just a fun family sitcom about growing up black in the 80s.
Until now.
Chris is a kid who can’t find his purpose. Over the course of the show he tries DJing, boxing, basketball, writing for the school newspaper and karate. He fails miserably at every turn. In comparison with his brother Drew, who succeeds at everything he tries and his best friend Greg, a science whiz, Chris can’t do anything right. Compared to these kids with demonstrable skills, Chris is a sitcom Charlie Brown. Obviously, this isn’t true—it’s based on comedian Chris Rock’s life—but it brings up a good point. How do you find your purpose when it seems like you’re the only one without a talent?
When I was in high school, I didn’t feel like I had a true gift. My friends were singers, guitar players, artists, actors, and poets. I tried all of these things, and even though I was decent, I never could rise above the group. I tried every club possible. I did student council, cheerleading, volunteer work, choir, theatre and any other thing I could get my hands on. None of them were my true purpose. The only thing I knew I was good at was getting in screaming matches with my friends over domestic policy but that’s the primary talent of every drunk uncle at Thanksgiving. This wouldn’t do, especially when you take into account that our society’s definition of talent is art. Where I come from, everyone either wants to be a scientist or an artist. I didn’t fit that narrow definition of talent.
When I got to college, the pattern continued. I tried out for a capella groups, plays, an improv troupe and the rugby team. I failed spectacularly at each of them. It was looking grim until I got my first paper back. I got 100% with a note exclaiming that my writing voice was extremely clear. I didn’t really think anything of it. Art and science are talents, an English major will just get you laughed at. Then I saw that the satirical newspaper was looking for editors and writers. I figured I’d try it out. I got in. I had a conference with my writing professor. He told me I was a good thinker and that makes me a good writer. I looked back at my old English papers and saw the same note on all of them, "Your voice is great." I thought back to every argument I had with my mom where I wrote her a letter to apologize. I did have a talent after all.
Don’t limit yourself to thinking talents only fall into a narrow scope. It doesn’t matter if you’re the best at looking at rocks under a microscope, examining the stock market, brainstorming innovative ideas to lift people out of poverty, or telling jokes. You have a talent. Everyone has a purpose. Go find it.
