Suu’s connection
A short story about how average turned into new. Swifted into connection to returning again to average.
‘I hate this place! When I turn 18 I will get on the first plane to New-Zealand and never look back. Never!’ Sue remembered vividly her 16 year old self shouting, slamming the front door and throwing her school bag in the corner of the room.
’So you grow up in an average city, go to an average school and live with - ok a bit odd- but almost average family.’
As it were yesterday her mother’s answer resonated in her head:
'Average, average?! No thanks! Average is rusty and boring!’
’You can travel to the other side of the world. Only to find out averageness is hitting you again right in the face.’
‘Mum, why do you haunt me today to remind me of this?’ Suu wondered. Abruptly her thoughts were disturbed by the loud voice of a student sitting at the table next to her at the campus cafeteria:
’Hallo, hallo.’ followed by a flood of words in a language that was unknown to her. A bit irritated, Suu wanted to get up and leave, but something inside her made her stay. She watched as the student talked cheerfully with a face that covered the small phone screen lying on the table next to her lunch.
‘In my time there were no smartphones to call my mum like that.’ Suu thought. After graduating she pursued her goal to move away. Got a scholarship at a university and never looked back. New country. New food. New place to live. New teachers, new friends. Hard work paid off. Ending at the top of her year, she stayed on as a part-time researcher while traveling the world for an international company.
Over the years contact with her mother faded to the annual birthday wishes and Christmas greetings.
New was what Suu was thriving on
Every time she felt her life thrifted into what she thought to be average, she knew it was time to change. Seeking new resources to suck energy from. Friends came, friends left. Her relationships never lasted longer than 6 months.
‘Oke, Suu, enough of this emotional crap, time to get back to work,’ she boosted herself. At the same moment the student’s chatty voice turned into a worried one:
'Hallo, hallo.’
Muffled by the noise of the cafeteria, Suu saw the student put away her phone, wiping quietly away her tears.
Connecting
On seeing the student’s tears Suu felt a sense of pity and reached out with a handkerchief:
’Having a bad wifi connection sucks, he?’
A bit surprised, the student looked at Suu. Together with her tears words started flowing out of her:
’I am the first in the family to study at a university. My parents want me to break through the chain of living an average life and become a software engineer. But growing up I felt at home in that average life and never had any desire to move away. Anyway my parents don’t understand that there is nothing wrong with their average life.’
’Nothing wrong with average? That is not the life you want to live, trust me? You need to seek for what is new, that will bring you further.’
‘Further to where? Breaking with an average life is all I have been hearing since my childhood. There is no average life!’
‘Of course there is! Suu answered swiftly. ‘Using both objective and subjective indicators for measuring Quality of Life you learn that every country has its own set of cultural, health, religious and economic standards to indicate its country average life.
‘Ha! Now you talk about quality of life! You researchers always have an answer with some new publication! What does that have to do with my parents living in a poor neighborhood and having to meet ends?
‘Research findings are indicators reflecting the state of mind of a country and economical growth even on a global level. If you are an ambitious software developer your generation can get to live that above average life your parents dreamed out for you.’
‘So, you mean to say that my quality of life will be better when I drift along economic growth.?’
‘Ehm, actually yes.’
The student jumped up from her chair. Placed both hands threateningly on Suu’s table she leaned forward and in a firm tone answered:
‘For the last eight months I have been sitting in boring lectures and reading even more boring books. My brain is soaked with understanding AI, programming, statistics and the importance of using averages every step of the way. Who was that crazy person from your generation that started using statistics to objectify the average life of my parents?”
Numbed by this unexpected rage Suu looked into the fierce eyes of this unknown student. Her mother was right; averageness had just hit her right in the face.
Without even waiting for Suu to respond the student walked a few steps then turned around:
‘I tell you this. Perhaps you may cramp me into some average life scale. Nobody walks like me, thinks like me or talks like me. I am an unmeasurable unique person. And so are you.’
Many hours past, the cafeteria was empty. Suu was still glued to the chair. Then her phone rang.
´Hi mum, how are you?´