Average man reflects on not-so-average experience

  Hernane Tabay Tabay was an assistant
Electronic Media director. He thanks all his friends and the
above-average memories they gave him. He will always cherish them.
E-mail him at [email protected].

This past summer I went to Hawai’i through UCLA Summer
Sessions. Besides learning about Hawaiian history and about da
kine, one thing I will always remember learning is the idea of the
“average man.” It was conceived one night by Kekona,
Allen, Brent, Chris, Noel and Sarmad.

Most of the population today is average. Most people have failed
to realize that they are destined to be average and try to act
“above” average in attempts to become above-average
human beings. Those people are only hurting themselves because for
those of us who are not destined to be above average, anything that
is done to become above average will have a recoiling or an
averaging-out effect.

You are probably thinking now, what the hella? I felt the same
way when I first heard it. Kekona told me after a barbecue,
“The average guy is not noticed. He blends into the
background. Girls only notice the above- or below-average guys
because they stick out against the background.”

If you look at life, there are positive and negative events.
These events can average or cancel each other out. So when
something bad happens it is important to realize that something
good is about to happen. This is the motivation behind every
average man.

One thing that gets an average person through life is the
average pleasures that above-average people pass on because they
can consistently have better. An example of this is when an average
person gets back from a long day at work (eight-hour day) from an
average paying average job to an average family (a spouse, 2.3
children, a dog and a cat) and comes into an average house (one
story, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, white picket fence, small
garden, well kept lawn) and sits down to an average dinner. This
dinner, however, need not always be average (simple pasta and
salad). Sometimes the average man needs a treat like a steak, baked
potato and a beer. This is well within the average person’s
budget, so the recoil is nothing to be too afraid of. The recoil
could be anything from having mac and cheese for dinner the next
night or maybe being a little hungover from the beers they drank to
unwind. This is the epitome of average life.

To me, it really makes sense. Most of the jobs I took on at UCLA
were behind the scenes. I don’t get or look for all the
attention. I’m just an average person, I’m just
Hernane.

Before I end this article, I want to thank all my friends and
everyone I met here for making my time at UCLA an above-average
experience. From what I hear from my friends who are already in the
real world, life there is below average compared to college life. I
guess, like it or not, real world here I come!