I agree to an extent. Sure, everyone was born with an inherent talent, something that separates them from others. I'm an advocate for the school of thought that no one was born to just exist. There's a purpose that everyone was meant to fulfill.

Life comes in phases, men are in sizes. Everyone was born for a particular phase. It's the discovery that tends to take time and for some people, could telegram an eternity.

The reason why this happens is because of society and its way of bullying people into doing certain things and giving the definition of what is and what's not, what should work and what doesn't. It makes people to stick to the status quo and never think out of the box.

It's for those reason I was surprised when growing up that so many people want to be doctors. I mean, in our class one back in the days, one of our teachers had gone round to ask what everyone wanted to be. More than 80% of the class wanted to be doctors. As I grew up, I began to understand why. It's because society had painted that being a doctor was the shortcut to success. If you can become a doctor, there'd be nothing like unemployment. You get a job almost immediately. However, that's not so true today. The demand for doctors in many hospitals have decreased as they barely have enough to pay the existing ones. It's not as rosy as it used to be some years ago.

Some of these folks who do everything to end up a doctors never make it to the end. Many a time, it can be traced to the fact that it wasn't what they wanted but what society had, the pictures society had painted of the ideal life.

I remember a story I read some years ago. It was that of sadness on the part of a young man. He had dreams of becoming a musician but his parents wanted a doctor instead. So, he had done everything to please his parents. He went to school and selected the courses that would enable him gain admission to the university as a medical student. He was smart enough and got admitted. He went through medical school for six years and finally got certification to practice medicine. As he graduated, his parents threw him a party to celebrate his success.

As the merriment was going on, he was called upon to give a speech. With sadness, he took the microphone. He had in his hands the certificate. He said he's happy to have finally finished the medical school but that he wasn't really happy to have spent six years of his life doing what he never wanted. He took the certificate and gave to hospital father and said 'I've gotten you what you wanted. Now, it's time to go do what I've always wanted to do.'

That was it. The next time his parents heard of him, he'd joined a music band.

Most times, people's creative sides never manifest because of societal pressures. It shouldn't be that way. Imagine if some of the great inventors of history had decided to take other routes. Imagine what would have become of the telephone, the airplanes, the light bulbs? I think what makes us compatible is our uniqueness. The fact that no two people are the same or born with exact skill sets. We are creative beings but only few manage to ever get things innovated, they keep riding the wheels that others have spinned. It's saddening, really.

RE: Musing Posts