The Dilemma of Being Original

By Chelsea Korn

          What does it mean to be original? It seems that all our life, we are told to be ourselves; to be leaders, not followers; to stand out from a crowd. As I’ve gotten older, I have begun to see that originality is lacking in this world, but not because people aren’t trying to be original. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” Mr. Emerson is completely right. Lately, I’ve begun to see a pattern in people. If the world was split into percentages, 45% of the world would be what I call ‘blenders’, people who just blend in with the mainstream crowd, the general public. These people are individuals who care immensely about the opinions of others and try not to act in a way that goes against the status quo. The next 45% would be the people who are constantly, consistently, trying to be different and unique. Let’s call them the ‘try-ers’. They are people who desperately want to come off as being an original, unique, human being. Like the blenders, these people also immensely care about what people think, but for different reasons: they desperately want to be seen as creative and original by the world. Finally, there is the 10%--the people who truly don’t care about what others think. They aren’t trying to blend in with a crowd, but they aren’t trying to be blatantly different in order to be seen as an original. The 10%ers are the true originals.

            You see, the funny thing to me is the striking animosity that the blenders and the try-ers have towards each other. Blenders scorn how try-ers are so different from mainstream society. Try-ers loathe how blenders are so ‘mainstream’ and think that they are boring and don’t know how to not follow one another. The funny thing about this unspoken animosity is that these two groups of people are so similar! It’s a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black! Both groups care about the opinions of others and are trying to maintain an appearance. People who try so hard to be unique and avoid becoming one in a crowd sadly do the opposite of their intentions—they become one in a crowd of the same people trying to be so different that they blend in. When we were younger, we were told to be original! Be yourself! Be a leader, not a follower! But if everybody is a leader, aren’t we all followers? If everybody is original, aren’t we all unoriginal? I think that group of 10%, people who don’t give a darn either way are the true originals. They are the ones who truly stand out from a crowd, for they are the rare individuals who don’t care at all what other people think. They aren’t trying to please other people, or create an image. They aren’t trying to fit a label or a formula. They are just being themselves, no matter who that is.