“What’s your biggest fear?”
It’s a question that comes up in ice-breaker activities and conversations with new acquaintances. More often than not, people will respond with “heights," or “spiders," or, much to the dismay of every SCOM (RIP GCOM) professor, “public speaking." I have never felt particularly partial to any of these stereotypical fears – well, there was a time in 5th grade when I couldn’t sleep unless I had socks on because I was afraid a Black Widow would bite my exposed toe and kill me, but I got over that (eventually). It wasn’t until second semester sophomore year, when my life was in complete and total disarray, that I realized I did have a fear: Mediocrity.
Mediocrity by definition is “ordinariness as a consequence of being average and not outstanding.” Ouch. It hit me like a brick. I quickly realized that mediocrity had infiltrated almost every aspect of my life: grades were good, but not good enough. I had money, but it never seemed like enough to cover the cost of gas, food (s/o to all the friends that punched for me, you’re my heroes), sorority fees, and leisure. Friendships were fine and I was no stranger to almost relationships. In theory, everything was ok. And this scared me.
Our generation has become so apathetic to the things around us. We settle for the “enoughs” and the “fines” and the “almosts," never looking for the exceptional and outstanding. We’d rather sit and analyze social media than go out on a real adventure, and if we do, it’s “for the insta” or “will make a good snap story." We are constantly comparing ourselves to others – sometimes to people we’ve never even met. We think, “maybe if I dress like her, he’ll pay attention to me.” Or, “maybe if I study the same way he does, I’ll do better on my test.” The fact of the matter is that you will never fully fit into a mold that was created for someone else – and we shouldn’t want to. It’s the infinitesimal and idiosyncratic details about a person that makes them different than the next, which I think is one of the most special things about life. Instead of spending so much of our time on what other people are doing, saying, wearing, what other people’s grades are like, and what other people’s jobs are, we should be looking to the core of ourselves and evaluating life from there.
The solution: get to know yourself. Find out what makes you happy. Or sad. Or excited. Or uncomfortable. Find out what you are passionate about and shift your focus to that. Life is too short to put all of your energy toward petty things that don’t give you, or anyone else for that matter, any fulfillment. Being just good enough, just smart enough, just pretty enough, just nice enough, implies that there’s a limit, and who has the right to define these parameters? Not you, and certainly not me. Recognizing that there is mediocrity in your life is not a weakness; it should be considered a starting point for change. Take it as an opportunity to live outside of common constraints. Aspire to be more than “mediocre” – aspire to be extraordinary.
