"Dear past, thank you for all the lessons. Dear future, I am ready." Chioma Onwudiwe
Someone who hated my guts, always told me when I was a little girl; that as soon as I got involved in any situation, things never remained the same. She said it with such sneer and spite that it bothered me for many years. The thought plagued me to hide and never affect anything. In reality, that was just what that accusation was supposed to do. Make me everything else but who I really was. I mean I kind of understood what she meant, but uttered with such venom made it a cringe worthy event.
The intent and real meaning was heavily altered and poisoned. So for many years, that statement bothered and restricted me. And I tried as much as possible to avoid getting involved in anything. But 'anything' would not leave me alone. No matter how much I tried to mind my business, there was always a situation brewing around me. It always chased me down and got me involved never-the-less. And I delivered, howbeit with scars.
I have long since learned that, the aforementioned statement though delivered the first time as an arrow, is in fact true. For example, a purse snatcher could snatch purses for years successfully. And then the day they snatch my purse, becomes the day they get caught and put away. I don't know why, but the buck most often stops here. People have different descriptions in the feed back they give, but the end result is that a change just took place, the existing norm was reverted. The status-quo was toppled. The Business Dictionary describes it as such:
Definition of game changer: A person or idea that transforms the accepted rules, processes and strategies...
Sometimes (if not most) the agent of change gets beat up a lot and/or rewarded. But a change still happens. For example;
I was running my errands during the week, and quickly stopped by a Pizzeria to get a slice of pizza which I intended to munch on while walking down the street. It is a very bad habit I picked up in NYC. So while waiting for four jolly men by the brick oven to fix my humble order, I looked over and saw a big screen at the corner of the restaurant section. There were people sitting and eating but no one was really paying attention. Suddenly, I noticed a certain kind of play on the screen. A tackle if you will, from one team and I got all riled up. Then the next thing I know, I was so embroiled in the game that my pizza order was forgotten.
Now everyone in the restaurant started yelling at the screen. The manager now moved a table towards the screen and imployed me to seat. He planted a box of pizza in front of me (on the house) as people began to stream in from the streets to order pizza. An hour later, I tried desperately to push past the happy crowd behind me as I went to apologize to the manager for overwhelming his little restaurant. Instead he informed me to come back with my friends the next day. Our pizza would be on the house. That was a goal!! If you ask me.
Then came Saturday, I ran across the street during half-time, to pick up some dry cleaned clothes of mine before the store closed. Well things did not go fast enough, so I had to watch on a large outdoor screen as I waited. As I jumped and got involved, so did everyone around me. When it was all over, a bunch of people walked up to me and exchanged pleasantries. They said they really enjoyed my presence. Some said they never felt so light in a long time. Or rooted for anyone besides themselves before. I said I was glad to be an agent of 'loosening the burden'.
As I turned to leave with my belongings, a woman walked up to me and started expressing her very angry opinion. I told her she was very entitled to that, but I really needed to move on about my business. But she seemed to think I epitomized all her life problems. At some point, she huffed and she puffed, but this house was not going down. By now she was fuming like an exhaust pipe and I still had not figured out what her real problem was. She complained about my height, then the weather, the traffic, the mayor, the soccer match then my height again.
After nearly eight minutes of the negativity, I said to her: "Annie go get your gun," cause I have my 'armored humvee' parked right outside. Lets just get it over with !!
The game just changed. Phew!! Now on a lighter note, shall we get back to Brazil? I like that game better, at least for now.
