Do You Ever Wish You Were Someone Else?
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy)
I used to wish I was more like other people. I wanted to be funny like my brother. Smart like the people on Jeopardy. I wanted the fashion sense of my cousins, and the patience of my grandma. Basically, I wished I was like everyone but me.
What I forgot was how terrible it would actually be if the world was full of identical people.
When my husband first interested me in playing World of Warcraft, an MMORPG (massively multi-player online role playing games), my first lesson was that I’d have to choose a role to play.
Many MMORPGs have what they call the “holy trinity” of three roles—tanks, healers, and DPSs. My character could only play one role at a time.
Tanks, as their name suggests, take the heavy damage. They get up close and allow the bad guy to beat on them, distracting his attention from their teammates.
DPS, short for damage per second, are the high damage dealers. They’re often unable to take a lot of damage themselves, but the tank and healers in the group depend on them to kill the bad guy.
Healers (obviously) heal. Without them, the evil mobs would kill the rest of the group before they could get the job done. Keeping everyone alive requires a sharp eye and a good sense of balance.
Most people who play prefer one role over the others because each comes with a specific play style. And just because you’re good at one role doesn’t mean you’ll be any good at the others. Healers often make terrible DPS, DPS often make terrible tanks, and tanks often make terrible healers.
But if you want to clear a dungeon or beat a raid boss, your group needs all three classes because each role brings something unique.
In life, like in World of Warcraft, we each bring something unique to the table, something not everyone else can do.
And it wasn’t until my wedding, when my maid of honor gave her speech, that I realized other people were wishing they were like me in the same way I was wishing I was like someone else.
Perhaps I didn’t have my brother’s sense of humor, but I have an ability to notice and organize details that he doesn’t. Perhaps I’ll never have my cousins’ fashion sense, but I can write and play the flute. I don’t have the saint-like patience of my grandma, but I do have a knack for seeing the best in people, even when they can’t see it in themselves.
And the world needs those things too. Just like it needs your unique talents.
What talent, ability, or quality do you wish you had? What are you really good at that you sometimes take for granted?
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