Just an Airman

A couple of years ago, an Airman entered my office to pick out some aircraft bolts and acres for a job they were doing on an Aircraft. As they picked out what they needed from my bench stock, the Airman looked at me a little frustrated with a bolt and in their hand and said "That's me, just an Airman, just another cog in the wheel waiting to be replaced." This statement has haunted me since.

I have often reflected on my own career in conversation as "I'm just a supply guy." The word "just" implies there are limits to my abilities and skillset. Sure, my technical training might be the same as thousands of others, but my experiences are far different. When we use the word "just" we are creating an ultimatum. Like we have "just" given up. An ex-English professor of mine (Ken Rowley) would argue it is "just" a lack of vocabulary. The word does not seem to offer the ability to grow, develop, or change. Let's "just" move on ... (even that sounds morbidly ridiculous).

If we imagined any organization as a heavy clunky piece of machinery that ground day in and day out to produce a set of outcomes, we could then use the analogy of being cogs in the wheel reliving the daily hustle and grind. Continuously building the same result with no real altercation or advancement. It is "just". This bothers me for multiple reasons. Why would we want to plateau like that? Why live the same day in and out without any advancement in development either professionally or technically? We've "just" given up.

For the sake of a better understanding let's dive deeper and imagine we are in fact a cog in the wheel and we are slowly waiting to be replaced. If this were the case it would be an endless cycle of serving one purpose "to show up." But even for bicycles or other machinery cogs have alternate parts and may differ in composition. For instance, I have both a plastic screw and a metal screw that was made for the same component of my bicycle. The difference is one lasts longer and leaves its mark.

If in fact, we are cogs in a wheel waiting to be replaced. Then I would ask, have you left your mark and continued an endurance strong enough to move on to a different position or (like my plastic screw that fits beautifully on my bike) are you shiny and "new" until you are broken by too much pressure?

Though, the cog in the wheel analogy is inaccurate because we are humans that design, and inherently develop our own path.

Why do we accept complacency in ourselves and the stagnant path of the status quo?