MR NIGER D A?

 

Primary school was bliss, really. Remember how we used to shout “it cannot go” when we were made to subtract bigger numbers from smaller numbers? Amazing time.

Having to make reference to the characteristics of living things while studying “Biology of Behaviour” took my mind back to my MR NIGER D days. I said the familiar acronym, stating what each letter stood for, and I thought, “Where’s adaptability?”

While I cannot completely recall at what stage adaptability as a characteristic of living things was introduced, I found myself thinking about this characteristic longer than expected.

Adaptability, according to the Oxford Learner's Dictionary, is the quality of being able to adjust to new conditions. And according to the Cambridge Dictionary, it's the ability or willingness to change in order to suit different conditions.

Once, I had to meet up with someone to pick up a few things. As I headed for where she was waiting, I stepped into a puddle of dirty water and some of it splashed on my leg. I felt so irritated and uncomfortable. I wanted so badly to scrub it off but I couldn’t get water and I couldn’t keep her waiting for much longer. Grunting in frustration, I decided to meet up with her first; I’d sort this out later.

After spending some time with her and collecting the things I had come for, I headed back to my room and realized something—I had totally forgotten about the dirty water that had splashed on my leg. It had long dried up, and the craziest thing had happened—I had adapted. I had adjusted to this new, though formerly discomforting, condition and I was living fine till I remembered it again.

Over the next few days and weeks, I thought about how everything played out; it seemed all too familiar and relatable. Oftentimes we find ourselves in new discomforting conditions and we do everything within our power to get out of them. We fight, we protest, we express our discomfort, but after some time, it doesn’t feel like a big deal anymore. After the “dirty water has dried up,” it almost seems like nothing happened and we settle, instinctively.

While adaptability might be a very important characteristic of living things, it comes off to me as the scariest. Why? Because, you just might be adapting without a single clue that you are. You might be settling for something you swore never to settle for, and you might not even realize it till you’re far gone.

Amidst the frenzy of doing what living things do, you might want to take a moment to examine whether you’ve been adapting more than you’re meant to, or adjusting to situations you should’ve rinsed off your leg the moment you got the chance.