'Average'.

‘Average’.

 I was conveniently born at a time after my parents played (and won) The Hunger Games. We hadn’t ‘blown’, but we had enough that I got to attend a ‘good’ school. I excelled in primary school (not gonna count nursery school, cause how can you excel if someone else changes you?), I was a straight A pupil, represented the school in competitions, won my fair share of 4^th-placed medals in sports, but my big break came one day when we had a drama hosted at Obi Wali Cultural Center, Port-Harcourt.

 I don’t have much of a memory about it but I must have done very well because the next Monday, the school had representatives from an advertising company come calling and requesting for me to be involved in two adverts; one for MTN and one for Ribena. I don’t remember much of the Ribena advert, but if you saw an MTN advert in the early 2000’s where a young big-headed boy with large glistening eyes was on a phone call with his papa (Mr. Jimoh- a teacher of mine and our drama leader) in the village, it was yours truly.

 The two paragraphs above are to show how I was exceptional; both academically and extra-curricular wise. After then, I went to Secondary school and fell in love with literature (coincidentally, elder sister was in a theatre arts group in boarding house) but retained my love for drama. My academics however, took a dive; there were by no means poor, but instead of straight A’s, I became a 1^st-3^rd student.

 This post isn’t to talk about exceptionalism or greatness, but to talk about ‘averageness’:

Before Covid-19 shocked the world, a lot of us football enthusiasts were used to the images and sounds of racially provocative gestures targeted at black people and the news of Balotelli suffering racist chants went viral. A few weeks ago, I came across a video of Cuban doctors being flown into Italy to help them combat the pandemic and all over, they were being cheered and welcomed- these people, same color as Balotelli, but different receptions.

 On Twitter recently, there’s been a lot of brouhaha about how health sectors in developed countries need more hands and how undeveloped countries believe their best are being poached. A law maker in the US was calling for the number of green cards available for professionals, especially in the health sector be increased, even if it means reducing the numbers of other criteria.

 While I have no problems with the intent, I have qualms with the underlying subliminal message we are passing; is it only the professionals who deserve the green cards? Is it only the exceptional(s) who deserve to be cheered? Do I; a young, ordinary man, trying to make my way in this cold world, in pursuit of greener pastures and success, not deserve a green card? I don’t even want their adulation; I just want to be able to go about my business without being called King-Kong.

 I have a grouse with fake-posturing; 90% of the population cannot be great, the majority cannot be special, not everyone can be awesome at whatever they do. Until we as a people unite and admit to ourselves that being ‘average’ is good enough, we will continue living a lie. Children derided for not exceling, adults punished for not competing, businesses taken-over or closed for not being the best. If everyone is supposed to be the best at everything, then who are they supposed to be better than?

 These are the thoughts that keep me up at night. Stay safe people, stay home.

Need to go have a talk with my dad about that MTN and Ribena advert payment.

|| The original post ended above; the following is as a result of complete 8hrs sleep||

 “Average is good enough” ~ Okekayi Woko, 2020.

 One reason why I personally never rated The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as high as I rated 30 Rock or Parks and Recreation or The Office is because Fresh Prince had an almost ‘forced’ feel when it came to morals. Some episodes just seemed like the result of a brainstorming virtue-signaling production cast. The other shows never seemed like they had a moral story or they had lofty expectations to fill. They just told their stories, with some laughs, a little romance and tons of drama.

 We as people tend to prefer the greats and there’s nothing wrong with that, but expecting greatness from everyone is absurd.

“Average is good enough”.

 One more story and we say The Lord’s Prayer:                              

 When I was in SS1, all those years ago, my school took me for a math/science competition (for SS2 & SS3) where I came 7^th in Rivers State and 18^th in Nigeria. The results were announced before we left the venue, and I was downtrodden. A few seniors came in the top 10 and two people came in the top 5’s. We got back to school (and naturally the news had gotten there already). We were heralded and I personally felt so good. My mum called that evening and I could feel her beaming from across the phone. One of my best memories till date.

 “Average is good enough”.

 Our Father…….