When was it that we collectively decided the ordinary or 'mundane' if you will, didn't apply to the lives of people from the generation currently residing somewhere under the age of 33?
Was it the early 90s education, that focused on inspiring students to 'do something creative' and 'only what you love', and was that sentiment driven by the personal interests of the governments at the time; i.e, have more people graduating into digital careers as tech giants and investment banks rose to power and lined the pockets of pollies with new found 'easy' money?
Who subtly put it in our minds that having an 'average' wage or 'average' job was beneath us under 33's, because well, we're extraordinary.
Or so we've been told; collectively of course.
But we ARE extraordinary. We REALLY are. And because we're so extraordinary we can collectively and politically correctly say that there's nothing wrong with average. That is, if you are average.
In fact, average is perfectly acceptable; if you're like, our parents or like, you know, our grandparents. But us extraordinary people need not bother our important selves with all these average jobs and tasks. Someone else can do them. Someone less extraordinary ...
Jobs past generations were happy to do, are far too tedious for the wonder that we are today.
I mean, think about it, we can get food, order a car to pick us up and most other things to apease ourselves, with the mere press of a button and we don't even have to understand how it functions or wonder about the negative consequences of our throw away, easy-access lifestyles.
Our extraordinariness means we can spend an entire day without speaking to another person if we were so inclined. It also prevents nasty things like sitting around a dinner table with our families talking about such trivial things like world events, emotions and feelings. What a waste of time - I'm TOO busy, in SUCH a hurry.
Where is my phone?
Makes you so glad phones exist though doesn't it? that we can just text 'no' rather than deal with anything face to face. I mean think about all that time we've saved and can put towards ridding world hunger and initiating peace now that we have technology and computers doing all those trivial tasks for us.
We can do SO much more now that we aren't bothered by trivial things.
Oh hang on a minute ... I think a new episode of 'Keeping Up With the Kardashians' is just starting ... be right back.
Sorry, back. Now where was I? oh yes, on how far we've come! how wonderful it is to be so free and extraordinary and to know what colour lipstick Kylie is bringing out next.
What a time to be alive!
Okay so lets skip into reality for just a moment.
What's wrong with all this extraordinariness that's been created, you ask.
Firstly, not everyone is able to pursue the 'extraordinary' and because of this, shouldn't be made to feel like their position of circumstance is some sort of figment of their imagination. Wanting something enough, despite what we've been told, will not solely solve a position of circumstance.
It often does require a certain amount of money or level of education, a great deal of time, and, what we're never allowed to say - luck. It's a combination of so many things that make someone, or someone's life, extraordinary.
Not every hard-working person who's bursting with optimism, talent and passion has, or will, achieve the things their heart desires. If that were true, every person competing at the Olympic Games would walk away with a gold medal. It's unfair to say that their second, or last place was because others must have wanted it more.
There's nothing wrong with extraordinary little Emma pursuing her dreams. I'm not suggesting there is. I'm suggesting that it's not socially feasible for every one of us to be doing what we love. If it were, we'd have an entire population proficient in surfing, GoPro testing, wakeboarding, skiing, drinking, lying on beaches, taking selfies and travelling the world posting photos to Instagram. Catch my drift?
Someone has to drive the bus, and someone needs to collect the garbage. That's fact. And that's okay. An honest living is an admirable living.
What's even less feasible for the stability of our society - is making those not pursuing or getting their 'dream jobs' feel any less beneficial to society, because what we'll then face on mass is unhappiness, insecurity and emotionally inept people who will struggle with life's inevitable disappointments.
The world needs ordinary people for it to function. Ordinary is the glue which keeps the world turning. We need more people taking pride in the ordinary. Owning the ordinary. Celebrating the ordinary.
Ordinary (dare I say it) is more important to the world than the extraordinary.
Thankfully, as we get older and marginally wiser, we skip the onslaught of inspirational quotes {read last week's article "I want to punch your inspirational quote in the face" in favour of tough yet often freeing truths. This I've learned the hard way (along with my own horrible discovery that I am indeed, extraordinarily ordinary).
The documentary "Requiem For The American Dream" is a stark and jolting look at the fall of America's working class manufacturing plants for the quick bucks of offshore price-cuts. This period gave rise to what we know today - the almighty banker; best known for creating buzzwords so confusing and irrelevant to the general public that they were classed as 'clever', before we sadly realised all too late that they were in fact white collar criminals with wifi access and personal shoppers.
Not quite as easy for Batman to spot as the Penguin once was.
They left us with a burning Gotham-like shell of a modern world all the same; a crippling laundry bill called The Financial Crisis.
So before you jump in to blame the baby boomers for stealing all that free education and all those 'benefits' without even using them to be as extraordinary as we are, have a quick think: how many grandparents do you know that expected to own their own home, raise their own children, have their own meaningful careers (like creating mobile apps n finding new ways to hide dodgy derivatives n that) AND expect a {minimum} of two holidays a year; because quite frankly the slopes can't ride themselves and tropical islands give the best tans).
No. They mostly sacrificed things and exerted discipline when they wanted something.
Rarely, if ever, expecting it to come easily or immediately.
But now? Well now, we're so extraordinary - success is so instant, so quick ...
so fleeting ... so shallow.
Never has a generation held so many useless, unused degrees and yet felt so entitled to having it all.
Unfortunately selfishness just might be our legacy.
Our tombstones would read "A bunch of educated fools.", if anyone were around to see them.