The Walk of Average

For Average had been walking for years, decades wondering when or if he would get there. Average did not know what “there” was. However, Everyone seemed to be “there”. Average thought to himself, Everyone is there already. It flustered him having to walk every day through the same path past the same giants, the same mountains to always end up walking back home and having to restart his path again the next morning. Average saw Everyone going through the same motions and paths he was going through. The difference was that Everyone’s path appeared to be easier, prettier than his. And he continued with the same routine every day and each day he would ask himself if that was it. He wondered if the glorious stories of knights and beautiful castles embraced in joy were ever true. He wondered if all those stories were now just that, nothing else but a story. Before he knew it, Average had grown, and more years had passed. Average was becoming more concerned. He had been collecting rocks throughout his walks. He had picked up many rocks including the rock of discontent, unwillingness, jealousy, hatred and the heaviest of all, the rock of loss of self-worth. One day, Average decided to take a different path. He had seen this path before, once even took a step towards it but decided it was too risky and went back to his usual walk. Walking slowly through the path, he realized he had walked too far in. It was now too late to walk back. “What was the way back anyways? He thought to himself, well, this at least is something new. Right?”. Nervously, he kept walking. As he kept walking, he realized that the giants in this new path were far greater and the mountains were far higher. The cliffs were far deeper. By now, his rocks became heavy. He wondered if he would ever make it. His knees trembled and he was starving. Without a sense of direction, he kept moving forward down the unknown path. That is until Average came across a stone. On this stone there was a small black book with rounded edges. The stone read, The Book of Talent. He stood across the little, small black book. Hesitant to pick it up, he walked away. Average decided to take a nap. However, he could not take his mind off the black book. Was that meant for him? Hours turned into days. Average finally decided to pick the little black book up. As he opened it, he was surprised to see empty ivory-colored pages. Average decided to take his new find, his new treasure back with him. Average decided to fill the ivory pages with his experiences. He began to record the mountains he crossed, the giants he fought and the cliffs he climbed. Average recorded the rocks he carried with him. He came to the realization that each time he recorded a rock, that recorded rock became a precious stone. Day by day a new rock was recorded until he had no more rocks and just beautiful stones. By then, Average came to the realization that he had somehow made it back home. He laid his black book flat and looked through the little black book once again, now with ivory pages embellished in ink. Doing so, Average noticed an expandable pocket towards the end of the book. In the pocket was a note that read, “The Book of Talent; Champions and Originality”. Average realized the reason Everyone’s path was “easier” was because they had found a little black book too. Average now became Original and his little black book with rounded corners became the door to the knights and beautiful castles embraced in joy.