Being unique without being uniquely the same

I had just boarded one of the orange buses that have been released to ply the pot-holed and dusty roads of Kampala when this belle’s phone went off with Chameleon’s rendition of “Bayuda” as the ring tone. With the advent of polyphonic phones that have music systems which sound like someone has a whole music band in their pockets, this lady disturbed my peaceful thoughts because the phone was loud. Am I ranting? Well, Yes, I am. Two other people, immediately, started looking at their phones checking if they were the ones ringing (wonder if people don’t know their ringtones) when suddenly this lady starts giggling away loudly that the bus radio was inaudible. What struck me most was not the boldness of this lady to carry on a loud conversation in a quiet bus, but the fact that there were some people in the same bus who probably had the same ring-tone, otherwise how would one explain why several people were also checking their phones the time hers started ringing. Now, I gather that such ringtones are supposed to show a certain element of uniqueness between “city people” and villagers but turns out that these people were anything but the same. In fact, they were just like a bunch of other people pursuing the same goal of distinction. Instead of being unique, they were uniquely the same.Looking around, I realize that they were not alone. In Kampala whether it’s a latest automobile, sport or fashion, the latest slang or paying thousands to watch the goats race, more and more people, in their quest to be unique, are, in fact, mirror images of one another. They look the same, act the same and talk the same. People jump on the latest trends bandwagon they forget what their own voice, movements, likes and dislikes are.What most of us don’t recognize is that it’s only when we cultivate our own personality and be our own man that we are able to move from being just another face in the crowd.We have to understand that being unique is all about being yourself. It doesn’t require a great deal of skill or money. It only requires true commitment from a person to make his own path, chart his own course, and be an individual.Being unique can start by learning things other people don’t know. They can be little details and facts that you can throw into a conversation ever so often. Start by putting emphasis on educating yourself not just on Manchester United’s game point but on other issues. Learn about the environment around you. Learn the political issues of the day, the ins and outs of the economy. Learn the difference between a stock exchange, GDP of your country, the level of taxes and the political situation of your country.In addition to expanding your brain, expand your wallet or hand-bag. Be strong in rejecting bank loans that push us to spend what we don’t have. Living on a “paycheque” to “paycheque” approach leaves us stressed out, weighted down and living life on a thin line.It’s a matter of knowing that what you own doesn’t make you stand out but the mentality used to acquire them. Individually, you will be unique when people are struggling to pay off un-wanted debts they got and you are not. When you can actually be a “doer” and not a dreamer, that’s when you become unique. Realize that sometimes, many times, the group is wrong. I’ll never forget the one thing my teacher used to always tell me when I complained about not being able to do something that my friends were doing. “If (fill in the name) jumped off the side of a cliff, would you do it too?”