Chapter 1 – Hello Pretties!
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Chapter 1 – Hello Pretties!

“Hello, Pretties!”

Every ear perked as the new speaker made his way towards the podium. The latter waved his hands while a smile hung on his face. The students could see the blue-plated I.D. on his chest, meaning he was a regular speaker at the university.

“Engineer Emanuel El Normando.” A student in the first row muttered.

“I’ll start my speech with a question.” The man spoke. Though only a few students looked interested. This seminar had been going on for hours and they couldn’t help but feel bored.

Emanuel clicked his tongue. “Does anyone want to live a not mediocre life?”

The teachers panicked in the background while other speakers were staring at them with confusion and peanut butter sandwiches in their hands.

The bastard is at it again, they thought. They wanted to intervene, but the university head signaled them to stop.

“Do you?” Emanuel asked the girl sitting at the very front.

The girl paused in surprise before answering with a crisp voice. “I do.”

“And that’s the problem.” Every student frowned. What the fuck is he talking about? Is he high? They surmised.

The speaker knew he got their attention now, though.

“Everyone wanted to have an amazing life. But can you?”

Emanuel gestured to himself while wearing a funny face. “I don’t. I just wanted to live a normal life.”

“You see, people tend to believe they are special. And I agree. But the paradox is… when everybody is special, no one is special.”

Even the laziest or sleepiest of the bunch frowned, and they pursed their lips with dissatisfaction. Only a very few smiled at the speaker’s opinion.

“May I speak, Engineer?” A student wearing five-millimeter-thick eyeglasses spoke.

“Go on.”

“Everyone is unique. That’s for sure. No one is similar to another. And that’s why we are special. If one is similar to another, that’s because it’s your clone or your doppelganger. Giving such a statement that ‘X is an alphabet and hence, Y must not be an alphabet’ is just a careless hypothesis with no backing to it.”

Emanuel waved his index finger towards him. “I agree, but I disagree with your last statement. This is the fault of our education system.”

“How can we excel if we don’t have a choice? Our education system has given everyone the same template. It was alright when we were just in elementary. But! How about high school? Do we still have to major and give importance to every subject? Our education doesn’t specialize. And that’s the point.”

“And by the time you arrived in college, what happened? You are just people scrounging your brain pockets so you can survive.”

“I get it. We get it. The government wanted us to know many things, so they packaged us to the same uniformity.”

“So, the moment we graduated from college, we're just the same uniform people.”

Another student didn’t bother to raise his hand and spoke with a deep intonation. “I disagree with you, Sir. Some people excel in college.”

“And then what?” Emanuel cut him off. “What happened to these people? Did they become successful people?”

“Yes.” The guy affirmed.

“How do you know it’s a success? Do you see it on social media? Do you know these people personally? Nah, you are kidding.”

“People got divided into three classes, remember this. The lower class, the middle class, and the upper class. If you are in the lower class, what you see from the middle class’s success is actually just his normal, generic, everyday life. Then, the middle class’s dream is just an upper class’s normal life, and so on and so forth.”

“And that’s the point.”

“I’m boasting because I’m in the middle class. So, I don’t need to excel. I just have to be normal and live my normal life.”

“It’s envious, but this is the truth of the world. Your dreamt success is nothing but a normal life to others. And you know what is the difference between these classes?”

“Opportunity? Wealth? Power? No, no! Worry not! It’s simple!”

“Luck.”

“Just luck guys.”

Everyone inside the room had trains moving in their brains.

“People who didn’t excel in their school years, even the lazy or cheater, but became successful. What do you think is the difference? Do they strive harder than you? Are they more talented?”

“Nope! Because you’ll see… once you go out there in the industry, no matter if you are lazy in school, a cheater, or a straight-A, it doesn’t matter. You’ll face a very grueling world.”

“Everyone is hardworking. Everyone is talented, doesn’t matter if we are talking about intelligence or wisdom.”

“So, don’t look down on others. You’re not entitled to be narcissistic just because you are better in school or have a larger allowance or you became successful! You are just lucky!”

“Have you ever played a game? The most angering part to me is when the loading bar—from zero to one hundred percent, is stuck at ninety-nine percent! You can’t proceed anymore. You got that feeling?”

“That’s the hard work and talent everyone has. And the remaining one percent is very illusive. The luck.”

“So, in short, you can never beat others’ hard work, passion, or talent whatsoever! Because you are just basically the same! Don’t be narcissistic that they don’t try hard!”

“Either you are obsessive or they became lazy. Can only go up and down. But if I were you, I will not think like that. I don’t want to work my whole life obsessive or look down on others because you thought they are just lazy. That’s toxic.”

“The one hundred percent truth is they are as hardworking and as talented as you are! They just don’t have the luck that successful people do!”

“You know Pacquito? The World Boxing Champ? He’s just lucky. And his luck snowballed and snowballed, and that’s why he reached his current life.”

“Oh, you might think I don’t give importance to his hardship and passion. Or to everyone’s hard work and talent. But I’m not. And that’s why there are jealous people who always say that this guy or that guy is just lucky, all because… they worked as hard as him! But only not having the same luck!”

“Remember, there are other boxers out there. Not just as lucky as Pacquito was.”

“And you should know, Pacquito doesn’t have an educational background. But he succeeded still. Because from the very start, he’s lucky that he doesn’t take the same template that we experienced. That’s already luck out there working.”

“He specialized. All of his time, passion, sweat, talent—all these poured into one field!”

“And that’s why it’s our education system’s fault. We exited the same factory, only to become the same people. You are not special. Everyone is doing their homework and everyone is trying. All people have reached ninety-nine percent of that loading bar! So, don’t ever, ever look down on others. If you succeed, that’s because you are just lucky.” Emanuel gripped his fist and his voice pitched an octave higher!

By now, everyone stared at him as if seeing a ghost. Their mouth gaped and an indescribable expression appeared on their face.

“But you see… I can understand our education system. Or perhaps, the government. Just think about it, all of us specialized in something. Where in the hell does the government get the funds to support all of us?”

“Nowhere. Thus, the best bet is to make everyone uniform. And uniformity gives our government a chance, in theory, to support all its jurisdiction and its people.”

“Me, I’m lucky. My mother worked hard on her way up, yet all her achievements got left to me. That’s why I’m living a middle-class life. That’s my luck.”

“I’m lucky again because my wife is hardworking and talented. Her work reflects on me and so, I don’t need to worry about my future. Another kind of luck.”

“Last, I’m lucky that my books and stories managed to get an audience out of the sea of books and stories!”

“I’m talented and creative, and I still believed it today. During my college, I don’t need to work hard to pass the subject. I always think, if I study a bit harder, I can make it to the honors or maybe even become cum laude.”

“But I’m already lucky as is. Why exerts effort? You arrived in this world because you have to live. And all you do is exert yourself to the point you are destroying yourself!”

“No! The point of living is to live longer! Work, but don’t reach the point your life is at stake. A broken family, destroyed marriage, no loved ones, drunk or high… what’s the end goal if you are just sacrificing things for the sake of that toxic career!”

“Don’t be the best engineer out there! Because you’ll never be! Name any mathematicians, scientists, etc.! All but uniform! Because no one could ever say that this mathematician A is better than mathematician B!”

“And even when you reached their achievements, sitting in that hall of fame, so what? What did it cost you? Everything!!!”

“Just work your ass getting a pleasant house, or a car, and a peaceful life!”

“Of course, don’t follow that YOLO ‘you only live once’, okay? You are just wasting your life. Instead of having one hundred years, you’ll only have sixty or less because of your recklessness.”

“It’s better to be ‘you have to live longer’. Take care of your health so that you have a lifetime to spend. If I ever have the power, I wanted to attain five-hundred-year worth of life. I just have many things I still wanted to experience.”

“To sum it up, all these hard works and talents have to be consumed for you to have a good life. Not the other way around.”

“Or else, you’ll shoulder a mountain of regrets and even wound others beyond salvation. Because no obsession is good and correct, no matter how you glorify it. In that narrow path, only many sacrifices for you to make. Even selling your humanity.”

“So, be good, be healthy, and have a peaceful life.” Emanuel smiled, also ending his speech.

Unbothered by the ghost in the room, he walked down the aisle and went to the teacher’s lounge, in which he got welcomed with contorted faces and rebukes.

“Bro, you are sure good! What if these children didn’t go to school anymore? Or transfer to another department? Or worst, get to another school?!”

“How can you be impulsive?!”

Nonetheless, despite their buzzing, Emanuel only gave them a comical face before sitting in the corner.

The university head congratulated him though. Emanuel nodded with indifference. His smile towards others was nothing but a face when looking at the clowns. At least, he gave a better impression on the head, or so he thought.

But regardless of his thoughts, the university head didn’t mind and talked to him for a bit before leaving.

“Ahhh. Because of my success, I have gotten the opportunity to speak in my former university.”

“Tough luck.” Emanuel grimaced inside. “I wonder how my boy doing in school. I gotta cook special food for him.”

“Spaghetti and meatballs, or Marinara?”

Unbeknownst to him, on this day, in the very room, many students left engineering and pursued other studies.

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