In this world we live in, we are faced with many controversies, struggles, deceptions and yes, even loss. In a society where everyday is just about making your mark and climbing to the top, you are constantly hit from all sides with new information and ways to “make yourself look better”. What most people don’t realize is that so much of this information is biased. Why you ask? Because EVERYONE is different. What works for one person will NOT work for everybody. The success of one person does not guarantee the success of another. As humans we were created with certain gifts and abilities separate and unique from all others. Yet we take in this information and run with it because it is what we are told to do. We have allowed ourselves to be followers and be put into boxes and fitted with labels when we were created to be individuals, working together with our own talents and strengths to make the world a better place. To make the world somewhere worth living. Somewhere we would not be ashamed of.
So, society and media, teachers and family will all tell you “go to college, get an education; that degree will change your life”. My question to these people is, if that student, who you are pushing to get that further education was created instead to be an “outside the box thinker” what are we doing to them then, teaching them to be like everyone else? We educate all students in the same way, forming them to one specific way of thinking. We take away individuality. We take away freedom and creativity. We have done this. Society, America, as parents and teachers. As a country who says we value freedom, we often lie to ourselves. We do not value individual freedom. The freedom to be an individual and stand out from the crowds, the freedom to think in the way we were WIRED to think, rather than the way we have had to conform to through education. You learn to “fix” yourself to make the grade, to change your thinking process to please the teacher when a question is asked.
In my own life there is one thing I am thankful for. Growing up I was privileged with the allowance to participate in a program separate from the classes most other students had to take throughout elementary and junior high. This program was called T.A.G (talented and gifted). Here we were encouraged and taught to think DIFFERENTLY, but work TOGETHER through our individualism, to use our gifts and strengths together to come up with the best possible solution to problems. One student excelled in one area, and another student excelled in another and that was OKAY! To embrace what was recognized as an outside the box way of thinking, as a gift of the strength of individuality and independence. What bothers me to this day is the fact that only 6 of us out of a 56 student graduating class was allowed to participate. 6. Students. Only SIX students were recognized as unique. This is bogus. First of all, what does this do to other students who are not selected for the program? The name of the program is TALENTED AND GIFTED. The first thing that I would have been thinking had I not been selected is “wow, I guess I must not be that special”. And I would have spent the rest of my educational career attempting to look, think, and act like everyone else to make it through. I would have conformed and unknowingly, suppressed the abilities and talents that had been given to me.
Beyond education for a moment though. Think about the work force. Many and most jobs are required that you conform to a certain behavior and discourage individuality. I have recently taken on a job at Walgreens. ALL employees are to use the “Branded Phrases” when someone comes in its “Hi, welcome to Walgreens” when they leave its “Thank you and Be Well” how superficial is this? It takes away from the employees ability to actually make a costumer feel welcome by using their strengths to serve the customer and make even THEIR experience based around their individual needs. But as a corporation it is all about conformity and being the same throughout all stores. Even writing has become this way. Newspaper writers get to cover their own stories, yes, but most of the time these stories and articles must be approved by a supervisor or editor. Someone gets to decide if your articles are not only good enough, but fit what they are expecting. Writers are therefore forced to adapt their style-which may be strong, and not only unique to them, but emotion and thought provoking- to someone else’s style and expectations.
So what is the point of all this? Why is being an individual and using your strengths and abilities so important? Why is it that conformity has become such a huge way of life for society – whether recognized or not, it is there. Without individuality, this world will inevitably crumble. We were not created to be a people set and paced by standards and expectations. Rather, we were formed by the One True God to be an individual, moving into the world with other people who have their OWN skills set creating ripples together by fitting the jigsaw puzzle of skills together to create a body. To create unity out of separateness. Unity from individuality. Unity in a broken and divided world. But conformity, that is just what the evil one wants. He wants us all so brainwashed that moving in and setting up shop will be nothing but a breath for him. Education, if used in the right way, encouraging individuality, recognizing that not all people were created for intellectualism could in fact do some good. However a huge shift and revolution would have to shake the educational world for anything like this to take place. I have great respect for the authors, artists, and musicians of this world. They understood this concept and used it to their advantage. Some may not understand it at the spiritual level, but nevertheless they live and breathe it.
I live to see a world radically changed by individualism. A world rocked to its core through revival. A world living and breathing truth and genuine freedom. For now I will start with myself. Start with one simple idea at a time. One word, one sentence, one inspiration. One, simple, crazy idea…that might just spark and ignite a flame. A Holy flame not self-inspired, but God-inspired. This, this is what I life for.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect…For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them…” (Romans 12:2,4-6)
“For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Corinthians 12:14-27)
Leah Metzcar 