Unique: Not Someone Else

Unique U

What is there to lose when you are but only you…?

I put my hands in front of me, I see skin stretched over bones around which were strained muscles and rivers of veins. I saw my fingernails, small and shiny, pink and bitten ‘round the edges. I blink. Images change little.

However, change is one of those constant things life’s made upon. Unless there is change, there is no progress, and no one moves forward. Some realize this, while some choose to wallow in the past of someone else’s.

But why?

To be like someone is a great thing to ask for:

1) It would give you the bliss of carefree-ness, and the sense of freedom that accompanies one that has no responsibilities.

2) There is no strain, for all you have to do is imitate.

3) There is no accomplishment, for the result is another person.

4) The only part that feels good about such an endorsement is that, you are not alone in making mistakes; another one, your role model, has partaken in it, too.

~

Yet, to be the person you are, is a difficult, obscure task. Because, in order to be the person you are deep in your subconscious, would mean asking you to sit still for hours and observe yourself without any self-serving bias and influential, rather flattering opinions of others. It would mean going away on a weekend alone to a lonely island, and finding the hidden treasure all by yourself. It would mean flying on a ‘copter all by yourself to the ends of the earth, unaccompanied, unseen and unappreciated. It would mean holding your breath underwater for long amounts of time with no one else around you to pull you out when you faint. It would mean struggling not to cry when you cut a fresh, young onion up for your favourite dinner.

It would mean to fight your own defenses to the outer world to find your soul underneath, and to handle it with care, inspect and analyze it like a doctor, and find out how it can be used to make your life worthy to the world that you live in.

Does that mean you shall have to be a superhero? No.

Does that mean you need to be a political head? No.

Does that imply you must be a sensational leader? Not really… but it’s your wish.

Because, the only advantage you are going to get when you are like yourself is – Happiness, with a capital ‘H’. Not a lot of results, when compared to anxiety, acceptance, comradeship, a lot of unwanted possessions, or even the satisfaction of being in the “in-crowd”, but definitely something that demands a second thought to being yourself.

When you lift your hands up and weigh the concept of real you and the concept of a modeled you, the clear, lighter one would be the modeled one, who is probably based on a person you greatly admire. Which means that being you brings a lot of baggage, is a burden that no one else can carry, thus, making you unique to your heart’s contents.

Being unique is being the fish that swam upstream in a flood-time. Being unique is a kite shaped like a balloon. Being unique is having a hairdo everyone turns to look around. Being unique is possessing a loud, booming laugh that sets everyone around you off like a cracker. Being unique is wearing multi-colored sunglasses, and stating that each eye of yours has a different visual defect. Being unique is dancing in the middle of an austere crowd that listens to opera in the middle of the road. Being unique is driving a remodeled scooter after picking it from the scrap-shop. Being unique is coming barefoot to P.T. classes. Being unique is having a ready bottle of Coca Cola for your distressed friend. Being unique is using a different pen for each different sentence that the teacher is dictating. Being unique is being innovative, creative, intelligent, conservative, rebellious and spiritual at the same time.

But the best type of being unique is being YOU.

The kind that is labeled YOU-nique.

~ Maitri Harys