Don't Fit In, Stand Out

We shouted our spleens out at our mother. Why was she bent on disgracing us? No amount of persuasion would dissuade her to reconsider our plea. It was an Easter Monday, the entire church congregation was meeting up for a picnic thingy. The twins and I thought it'd be the usual fried, crunchy and salivating foods but certainly not ɛtɔ (semi-pounded plantain) accompanied by avocado and evenly tossed groundnut from a hot saucepan.

We obliged at a Hobson's choice. However, we kept our distance from her at the picnic grounds and interestingly she was the least tickled. At lunch time, the food we had earlier spoke spitefully about became the ish. Scores of people took turns to be served till mummy's yummy ɛtɔ could not serve all, some left very disappointed.

Sometimes, the surest way to excel in a chosen endeavor is to leave the crowd and stand out. We are in an era where everyone wants to fit in even when they are made to stand out. Fitting in pays ordinarily but standing out pays extraordinarily. The only worst part about standing out is loneliness. Most times, loneliness is not the absence of people, it is the absence of innovation. I realized that whilst we chastised our mother for standing out, she was more confident about its returns.

The myriad of problems in our Republic is not beyond salvaging. We have chosen to approach them the same way our predecessors handled them. I have always been confident about the future of Ghana, the zealousness to change the patterns has become our bane. I understand very well the price a person must pay to stand out- ostracism. The Ghanaian system only encourages conventional thinking, the reason for the high turn out of educated illiterates, the reason why educated folks are more frustrated than illiterates, the reason everyone looks up to the government.

Unless a man chooses the unconventional path, his life would be no different from that of his predecessors. I hope someone takes a cue from Mummy's Yummy Meal.