It Takes One to Be Great

How did it feel when you first started to count? Was it hard? Did it feel like you were memorizing the words you were saying? Did the other numbers feel a bit more special than the others? But even though it might be hard, you can always go back and start again from the first number.

Yes, One.

Such a small number, isn’t?

This describes a feeling when you have to make your way home through the dim lit streets as the soft howling wind walks by your side. Your tired shoulders shiver as you tuck your cold hands inside the pockets of your jacket while a passing sickly cat scampers across your legs, making you stop. Taking a deep breath, your cumbered feet makes a slow pace across the cold alley again.

In the opposite side of the globe, a dog stares at water as she wants to keep herself dry. But as she maintained her place on a floating plywood, she sniffs at every passing twig, plastic bottles, empty bins. Her owner calls her at the from the other end of the thick plywood, but she barks as her feet are anxious at every floating item that passes. The man approaches her as her bark becomes louder while she looks afar. Puzzled, the man looked beyond to see a floating basket as a baby wrapped in lavender blanket cries out. The calmed dog walked by the side of the frightened baby as it was gently carried to the other side of the plywood.

Along the crowd in a very deep town that has passed by mountains and rivers with lakes and forests, a group of people from the city has come to introduce equipment to farmers that might help them yield more crops. Now that the introduction and demo has been said and done, the speaker from the city asks for a volunteer from the villagers to test a tractor. Silence. Not even a single chatter was heard. Silence. Only the passing wind on the trees and chirping of the birds was heard. Silen--

The straw hat of a man was taken off as he approached the current speaker. “You know how this works, right? Then I shall be safe to test it.”

The squeaks of the shoes bounced in the bastketball court as the tired men in jerseys saw the flashed last ten minutes on the clock. Frustrated countenances faced the floor as the angry comments hailed before them. The irritated coach shoved a disappointed look at the players and left the bench with a scowl. The team captain’s words broke the silence of seven seconds.

“We can still make it if we hold on for a little more,” he gently spoke. “If we missed the shoot, let’s try again. Give your best on the next move. If it doesn’t make a score, don’t blame that person or yourself. Try again. Give it your all. ‘Cause we can’t do anything anymore once the game ends.”

One. When you have to face your fears and cross your storms with bravery, it’s harder when you’re alone in doing it. The dog was determined to keep barking until the baby was safe in their place. Making that first step to try something that you have never even heard and tried nor seen from people you know was something that a village farmer did as a response to a new knowledge called a tractor. Someone has to voice out a different thought so as not to hinder the existing hope drowned by the storms of blame.

It takes one to do such things. If one person starts to make a step and save somebody from a dire need, he can change a life. If one person takes a stand even though no one else is willing to join him, he is being the change he wanted to see in the world.

He might want to be the one who makes a change even though he is alone in the path he chooses. It doesn’t matter if he’s alone, but what matters is that he stands for what he believes in.

He might be that one who wants to see a nation to be united or one with its ways--one of which has no double standards and amidst the diversity of the tongues and mannerisms and beliefs is able to work together as one.

The One might want to be someone whom many have dreamed of meeting--the one who would be able to be honest to them as they are in a relationship, the one who would be their partner and not a lord or master to serve in for life, the one who would they want to spend their days growing old with.

That person might want to be the One who desires to makes everyone see that change is indeed possible.

How would you like to live out to BE THE ONE today?

Credits to Eloi (@janeloi) and Kuya Nathan (@mysupermando) for their sudden ideas about the number "one".

All images are original and owned by the author.