In the world, there are two kinds of people, as far as my thinking goes.
The first kind are the people who tend to round off everything that comes their way. When the clock reads 06:26 pm, they read it as half-past six. And the other half, who remain with the moment to the dot. For these martinets, when the clock reads 06:26 pm, they oblige and announce it linearly as 06:26 pm, not a minute less and not a minute more.
I belong to the former although I sincerely wish I was born a latter. Despite working towards it, I don’t seem to have a particular affinity for the details. I expect to make do with wherever my natural abilities extend instead of working towards outshining myself.
I don’t intend to do a neat job; I happen to do it neatly. If I cannot, then I give it two hoots and do the shabby job that I am good at. Striving for perfection doesn’t fall into my crevices. My innate desire to expedite things won’t allow this slack. I believe in a quick fix, and if by any chance, it takes longer than my anticipated strut, I scoot and find something else to fit my glove.
However, I have massive respect for people who stick to things, for whom giving up seems taxing. The Jacks of a single trade who are not afraid to repeat until they master the art or the activity at hand. The people who transfix themselves to things in the long run, slowly inching but always advancing and displaying magnanimous patience until they emerge from the ashes like a phoenix. This rare exhibit is hard to acquire by the likes of me.
Hence we are known as the quitters, goldbrickers, and even dropouts.
With my short attention span, I am always on the brink of deserting things. As a result, I dip my feet in many glasses of water. Since young, I have had a fair rendezvous with learning new things like classical music, folk dance, playing Ukelele, Arabic dance form, Okinawa Karate, Hoola-hooping, putting my non-dominant hand to use; I could go on but you get the gist. In case you ask me to showcase any of these talents, I will exhibit the highest form of a renaissance. My lack of perseverance is usually overcome by my fast grasping abilities, thankfully. If patience is not my blessing, spontaneity comes to my rescue.
Before you judge our sect, it’s essential you know at least one thing about us. It’s that we are easily excited. Given a new challenge, and in that precise moment, it’s this thing alone that we whole-heartedly love and genuinely want to pursue for the years to come. Things take a different course in time but that’s besides the point.
The other half (clearly ignorant of our plight) neither knows this distinction nor the knowledge of how and when to quit. So they take up whatever passion it is they have and remain passionate about it. Whenever a problem befalls these determined souls, they find ways to work their way around it, naturally excelling in it and continuing to stick to their pursuit.
It’s like those Tardigrades, the microscopic water bears that are the most resilient creatures of our mysterious earth. People think it’s the cockroaches that can survive any destruction, but in fact, it’s the eight-legged Tardigrades that can endure even the apocalypse. I adore these creatures. Not the Tardigrades I mean they can be cute from an angle but I meant my human counterparts who are equally springy to any adversity.
I heard of indigenous tribes in Africa who hunt their food to this day. They are the best trackers the world has seen, following prints, scents, and traits just by their prey’s footprints and urination ranges. Sometimes it takes weeks to locate and days of crouching for a moment to strike and bring down those majestic beasts. I guess I would bore myself to death if I were to be part of this hunts crew. It’s like I would tell them — dudes let’s just walk hundreds of miles on barefoot instead and find ourselves a restaurant to check-in.
And then there is this elusive new group, a hybrid of the two kinds— who have the best of both worlds. Made of both impatience and pertinent discipline. I, sometimes try to fit into this group by tasking myself to do something for at least one mandalam(A Mandalam is actually 48 days).
Sometimes, I do succeed but most times, my innate need to ‘quit and move to other things’ wins. Either ways, I have come a long way and I look at myself as not less than any huntswoman.
I am most definitely evolving, finding patterns and breaking my ill fitting barriers as I seem fit.
