I Haven't Lived An Extraordinary Life

I haven’t lived an extraordinary life. I will never climb Mount Everest or sail the seven seas. No one will ever compare me to Mother Theresa or Aristotle. I will never be one of the greats. No one will ever write sonnets about my heroic adventures or wax poetic about my faultless character. I will never be known for changing the world. I will never direct a movie that shocks you to your core or write a book that brings you to tears. I will never invent something that revolutionizes the way we live. My name will never be a name you learn in History class. Generations from now no one will remember that I existed. No one will know that my favourite colour was navy blue or that I hated ham or that I dreamt about being a teacher since the day I learned what a teacher was.

I am not extraordinary. My life has been a series of days-days-days following each other endlessly like ducklings in a row. My life has been emotion piled on emotion and one day I will no longer exist to regret all the days I spent crying when I could have been smiling. All that emotion put into something that won’t matter when I’m gone. No one will remember that I was a teenage girl who didn’t expect to live through her teens, but made it despite the deep-rooted feeling that she wasn’t supposed to make it this far. I haven’t been built to last. My body has not been crafted to house my soul for thousands of years so I’ll take ninety and we’ll call it a blessing. A blessing that I had so long down here instead of where I belong, up-up-up to a heaven I’ve been dreaming of.

I haven’t lived an extraordinary life. But I tried to live like I did, like everything I did would make a difference. If I smiled at everyone, it would make a difference to someone. If I made someone laugh, it would make a difference. If I talked to someone who was standing alone, it would make a difference. I don’t know if it did. I don’t know if someone somewhere is better off for having met me, is living a better life because of my impact. Maybe I have touched the hearts of people who will be in History books, people who will live like Mother Theresa, people who will direct movies that will scare, and write books that will scar, and live extraordinary lives.

I haven’t lived an extraordinary life. But the point is that I lived.