You are Not Special.
April 12th, 2010
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Posted by Jon under My Life
One of the things I’ve learned sine joining the military is that I am not special, that 99% of individuals in the world are not special. When we stay within our small groups of family, friends, and coworkers, we get used to being someone to all of them, someone that is important and worthwhile and special. But there are millions of people out there with the same problems as you, the same flaws as you, the same skills as you, the same ideas and thoughts and creativity as you. If you live in the USA, you’re one of about 300 million people, one of 6.5 billion human beings on the planet earth. Those are ridiculously large numbers of people, and almost every single one of us thinks that we are special. (I mean, look at me, typing away, expecting people to desire to read my writing.) I never really thought about any of this before I joined the Air Force, but my time in basic training brought it to my attention.
Every single week 1,000+ men and women arrive at Lackland AFB to begin the path to becoming a member of the US Air Force. And that’s just the Air Force, thousands more join the Army, the Marines, the Navy and the Coast Guard. We all get our hair cut, get stuck in the same uniform as all of the people around us, and get taught to obey, and serve, to become part of a team, part of something greater, realize that we aren’t just individuals, but part of a nation, and more importantly part of a group of people that are ready and willing to defend that nation. But, just the same it’s easy to drown in the anonymity, to slip away into a sea of faces and haircuts and uniforms. This great machine of military training continues to humble me as each week I see hundreds of Airmen arrive on base for Technical Training and hundreds graduate to begin their careers in the Air Force.
But this look into the vastness of humanity, and the fact that you’re not, as mommy might have always told you, “special just the way you are” is not meant to be depressing or upsetting in any way. I think that it should inspire every single person in the human race to greatness. I don’t want to be a face in a multitude of faces, I want to do something worthwhile to make my face stick out, so people know me and know what I’ve done, and that whatever I do, I will do well. It’s one thing that’s helped me grow and evolve a lot from the person I was before I joined the military. I’m not as lazy any more, I don’t half-ass everything, or do the bare minimum. If I have a task before I will put my all into it, I will do my very best, I will learn from my mistakes and not make those same mistakes again. And I think it’s paying off, I’m doing very well in school right now, and I plan on keeping that up through my time in the Air Force, and through the rest of my life.
What I want you to do is take a step back, think about how many people 6.5 billion really is and think about how many of those 6.5 billion people want to do the same exact thing as you. What are you going to do to be different, to shine above the rest, to make yourself be special? If every person pushes themselves to their limit, learns as much as they can, works as hard as they can, and always does the best that they can, the world would be a tremendously better place. I don’t expect to change the world and I don’t expect you to change the world, but why should that stop us from trying?
Change what you can, live with what you can’t. Always do your best. Ask questions, find answers, help others, and make everything you touch better because of it.
Be special.