The Importance of Being Average

Disclaimer: This post may be my undoing (as a professional teacher).

Remember when you were a kid in school? Your teachers glorified the honour roll, top academics in the class and going above and beyond. You used to hear, “if you try hard enough and you study hard enough and work hard enough…you can do anything!” Fair enough. Those words ain’t wrong. The grammar in that last sentence however…

Sounds better incorrect.

But now try to recall that pressure; from your parents, teachers and peers alike. That expectation to be more than you are and better than most. That was society, the big old ‘S word’, telling you that average was not good enough.

I’m here to tell you that it is. Better yet, why we should all take a moment to be average every now and then.

I searched the old interweb far and wide, only to find mathematical definitions for ‘average’. Turns out, the world has inconsistent views on what that actually means when applied to human beings. I’m sticking with the mathematical and I’m applying it to humans. So our definition is, a typical person in the midst of all extremes of humanity; a.k.a. old reliable.

What does this look like? Someone who lives a modest and responsible life, and is not trying to change the world to any large extent. Any example may skew the simplicity of the description. The focus here is the modest, responsible and relative contentedness of having the essentials. Average people aren’t looking to conquer the world. And yet, they are the masses. Just because average people go to work, do their job, come home and enjoy their hobbies, are they to be forgotten?

So much of today’s media is focused on people being exceptional. The whole celebrity fanfare, newspapers covering rare stories and important people doing important things. In a world of more than 7 billion people, its easy to get lost. Its easy to become average. But what if average was someone’s first choice?

That would mean they found satisfaction in results that most people found common. That would mean they appreciated the things that many take for granted, such as mid-range success in school, employment and housing. That would mean they opted for a steady path that gave them security and (hopefully) time to enjoy the merits of their hard work. I’m writing this with a sensitivity to countries where being average is still a struggle. Though, from my perspective, in Canada, average here looks pretty damn good.

And sometimes I wonder if being average (in North America) is actually better than being some wildly ambitious go-getter. I hear of these Bay Street boys puffing out their chests in the almost uniform too-tight-navy-blue-suits-and-brown-leather-shoes telling each other how early they got up this morning to ‘cross-fit’, how much money they made that day and how they’re going to become the next Leo in ‘Wolf of Wall Street’. 

Yawn.

That’s just greedy. Its also a limited example. But do we really need to carve ourselves out such a large piece of the metaphorical pie? Do we really need to establish our identities so publicly? Or can we just be good citizens and be satisfied with a simple life well lived?

Ready for argument 1: The need for advancements in science, to positively impact our earth’s health (including ours) requires above average people.

Rebuttal 1: We have already made incredible discoveries. Nature dictates that nothing lives forever. Deal with it.

Also, I didn’t say we couldn’t have exceptional people. I just said, its not a bad thing to be average. So forget arguments 2-99.

Though, the word ‘average’ carries a certain negative connotation I’d like to amend. So here’s one for the road… Maybe, just maybe, average folk are the enlightened ones. Meaning, they see the rat race that is humankind and they pull out their lawn chairs, crack open a cold one and watch the overachievers fight it out. In the bubble that is privileged Canadian life, average often means a good work/life balance and never taking tangible things too seriously. You have everything you need and you’re happy with that.

The problem is in the prestige we give to certain titles. Once you take that away, well then, who’s the real sucker?

My name is Giselle, and I am average.

And I love it.