“How many tires does a car have?” Most of the time, my friends would normally answer: “FOUR!” And then I go “EEEEERRRR!!! WROONG!!” Then they go “Huh? Wha? Wrong? Whada? Oh yeah, got it. How could I forget THE SPARE TIRE.”
Oh yes, ‘THE’ spare tire. I don’t know why people often forget this very important tire. Our family is running a transportation business, and I can’t even count how many times these spare tires saved our trips. It is very very essential to always have a back-up of everything for everything, as one of my colleagues says “If you don’t have a Plan B, you don’t have Plan.” Simple back-ups can really save us from complicated instances: A back-up of car keys can save our time and our car’s window, A back-up of house keys can save our door knobs, and so on..I remember when I work 12 hours just to re-collate our month-end report because the file got corrupted, and we didn’t have any back-up file for that report.
We can now see how can these back-ups be our saviour in some particular situations. Back-ups can really make us feel secure and gives us peace of mind. But this post is not about how we should be reminded to back things up. Instead this post is about: “How are we as ‘Back-ups?’”
I can still remember when I was still in high school, I walked-out a basketball game because our coach didn’t put me in the starting five as I used to be. I really felt bad that day, I can’t accept the fact that I’m starting the game sitting on the bench. My pride just went up to my head. I don’t want to be a bench warmer, I want to be out there playing and giving all I can give for the team. Little did I realize that I’m not thinking about the team anymore, I’m thinking about myself.
There are times in our life when we feel that way. We neglect the importance of bench players “The Back-ups.” We oftentimes think that we are a lesser being compare to those in the first five, and that we are taking a lesser responsibility. With this we begin to feel inferior towards ourselves, thinking that our skills, knowledge, and performance is not enough. Well that shouldn’t be the case because we have an equal load of responsibility as them. And we shouldn’t feel inferior, because the mere fact that we are ought to handle the same responsibility simply means that we have the same qualifications as them.
Taking the role of a back-up car key, we have the same responsibility as the primary car key: To open the car’s door. But we, as backup, cannot open it if we have different qualifications or characteristics as the primary key. If we don’t have the same dents, arches, shape of the first key, we will never be able to open the door. So the fact that we are placed to be a back-up, that simply means that we are capable of getting the job done.
If you are in a situation when you’re a back-up, an assistant, a reliever, a double, etc. etc. please take your roles seriously, you’re as good as the person you are replacing – or perhaps better. 
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