21st Century Perception of Talent
Recently, my daily life has undergone a massive change. I had been employed by a company for a number of years; had obtained knowledge and experience in every department of the company; and truly believed that my knowledge and more importantly my talent had placed my job in a secure position. I can think of 100+ times where I was one of the first people to arrive in the office and one of the last to leave. Am I a workaholic? Not really. I just truly cared about my company and would do everything possible to make our product stand out amongst the competition. Little did I know that upper management just looked at me as a number, rather than an asset or even a talent.
Due to the current economic crisis, I fell into the average 10% of Americans who have lost their jobs and this loss completely blind-sided me. For the past week, I have had a lot of spare time on my hands to really analyze my situation and think about what I want to achieve with my talent that God has blessed me with. Along with this examination period, I have also had the chance to do things that I haven’t really been able to fit in my schedule for the last 2 ½ years. These include: working out (thank goodness for that), researching jobs, reading, and even watching pointless TV shows. Those shows have really got me thinking about the idea of talent.
As I sat at home watching “hit shows”, I started to wonder what today’s culture considers as talent. According to Meriam-Webster’s Dictionary, talent can be defined as “the natural endowments of a person; a special often athletic, creative, or artistic aptitude.” Growing up, I considered the people who appeared on TV as relatively talented individuals. Obviously, the idea that you are talented if you appear on television became ancient upon the arrival of “Reality TV.” If you flip through the channels, there’s a good possibility that you will come across a show featuring uneducated East Coast individuals who’s social lives revolve around alcohol and partying; a female who’s “fame” came from the release of a private x-rated tape; or even a show about teenaged mothers. Does it really take talent to have cameras intrude on your daily life and expose your personal issues and even addictions? Are teenagers talented for getting pregnant? Does dating someone 60 years older than you make you a talented person? Call me old fashioned, but these TV “stars” are seriously lacking talent.
I have always been one to believe that talent leads to success. Whether your talent comes from sports, the classroom, acting, singing, public speaking, etc. talented people always seemed to have endless possibilities in their lives. But in 21st Century terms, you can be very successful without having an ounce of talent. The question I leave with is at what point did the line between talented and “train wreck” become so distorted?
Taylor Gaspar
OrangeBloods.com