Thursday, December 31, 2015

Good but Not Good Enough

Anna is a girl who has always been trained to be the best. Well, when did she start to be like that? Perhaps it all begun when she started to read when she was just 5 years old. Her family is not that rich. She just went to a public kindergarten; not Smart Reader Kids, or any other great kindergartens. At the age of 5 years old, she was able to read the newspaper by herself. Thus, her parents thought that their Anna has big potential. 

So, she went through her primary schools, trained to always be the best. Good is always not good enough. When other kids were struggling in finding excuses to have the worst exam result in class, Anna, on the other hand, always struggling to find excuses to just be the second best in her class.

Anna : Mommy mommy mommy!!
Mom : Yes, Anna. What is it?
Anna : I get the 2nd place in class for the previous exam.
Mom : Why aren't you the 1st?
Anna : ............

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Anna : Dad, I got 2nd place in previous exam. Again..
Dad   : Wow, that's great!
Anna : Can you just not tell Mommy?
Dad   : Why?
Anna : Err nothing....

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Mom : You got 6A+ 2A??? What happen to this Biology and English?
Anna : Ohh haha. Perhaps it's the examiner??! Hee.

Anna is an intelligent girl. Everyone say that. Not only in academic, she is great at many other things. She loves to write. She wrote since 12 years old. Basically, her mini diary to start with. She is a good leader. She was a prefect during her school days, even got to be one of candidates for the student council. An excellent prefect who always got her job on point. All the teachers know her, love her and care for her. She has interests on sports; netball, futsal and dodgeball always be her favourites. She also loves acting. She always starred in inter-class drama in school. Not only that, story-telling and poem recital are things that she enjoyed participating. She also good at traditional dance.

No, this is not a happy story! Because good is never good enough. This is Anna's reality!

Good at writing but not good enough for her stories to be read by many people like other writers could be.
Good leader but not good enough to be selected as a head prefect (due to such small size she has; that's how leadership works, or perhaps it was) or even enough to be voted as a student council because everyone hates her when she speaks the truth.
Good at sports but not good enough to win a team (That's why athletes have their own talents; if they are great at one sports, definitely they can conquer all)
Good at acting but not good enough to be selected into the school drama team.
Good at story-telling and poem recital, but not good enough to get the 1st place. (Guess the number 2 loves Anna so much they cannot be separated)
Good at traditional dance but ......... not good enough to divide herself between classes and dance class.

Last but not least, she's good in her studies, but not good enough to be the top scorer in her medicine class. 


Yup, good is never good enough.

It makes Anna sad. It gets her exhausted to be the best. She couldn't make it no matter what. No, Anna do feel grateful for what she has and what she could do. It's like she has so many nice ice cream flavours in her fridge, but they are all just Nestle, not Baskin Robbins. And when people come and ask her which flavour that she has is the best, she couldn't tell which one. 

Anna has always been taught to always be the best, perhaps nobody tells her that to give the best is better than to be the best. How could that differ?

Give = Effort
Be    = Result

Most of us also always miss this key of life. We have been exposed to only how important the result might be rather than to know how to put the best effort regardless the results. Potential. Potential is not the ability of one person of thing to be the best, Potential is the ability of a person or thing to upgrade themselves to become better and better.

Anna does not need to be the best in each thing or even one thing she's good at. She just need to improve herself. Her potential is not to be the best writer, the best doctor or the best leader in the country. Her potential is to be the best of what she can be. The best Anna that she can be. 

Don't worry, Anna! You're awesome no matter what people think. Perhaps your Nestle ice-creams could be upgraded bit by bit and you can have the best flavour for people to taste it. Or if people don't like how it tastes, never mind, you can it and enjoy it by yourself :)



2 comments:

obersea's said...

Yeah Anna! You are already the best, for being who you are. I see you as a fighter, not a loser. 2nd or 1st, it doesnt matter at all. It's just a pengiktirafan-dari-dunia. And what we have to look for in our life is actually pengikhtirafan-dari-Allah. Allah does not judge you based on the material success of your efforts (results), but rather merely on your efforts. So keep on giving your best. Never ever think to quit! haha. peace~

Bilal Brown said...

Anna should never care about what people think nor try to achieve goals to please them.
Anna is awesome~~