Perfection

What can be things that disturb you out of nowhere? There is fear, not completing your homework or missing out on something. All these disturbing things just get in your head and they do not let you feel comfortable. But in Andy’s case, it wasn’t the same. When things aren’t perfect, nobody but he himself freaks out, like it’s the end of the world.

When you’re living Andy’s life or a part of it, you cannot afford to let anything go wrong. From his bedroom to school stuff, everything is in place, secure. His quality of being organized and neat does help him in many ways. He doesn’t need to keep rummaging things every other time when he needs something. In simple words, he found solace when everything is in place. Things weren’t the same with his sister.

According to Andy, if there was an award for being the messiest person around, Ava deserved it. Apart from her laptop (which was messy in its own ways as Andy says), Ava didn’t have anything that was in a proper place or was organized. Their mom always claimed that Ava was an artist and it’s normal for her to have a messy room, but howdy was Andy taking it! His quest for everything to be perfect only went down, because of Ava.

The possible reason for Andy being so organized would’ve been his dad. Andy was everything like his dad: looks-wise, nature, smartness, and being an organized/perfect person. Only age differed them. Andy inherited all of his dad’s qualities, but the only one that seemed problematic was being the most perfect person. The results turned out to be obvious: constant fights between the siblings. There wasn’t really a lot common in Ava and her father, at least when it comes to being organized. Ava and the deputy of the family, her mother, couldn’t have been more disturbed, as Andy had nailed it all.

Similar to many siblings, Andy and Ava shared a room, bringing the conflict level to a career high. Andy tried spending a lot of time being out of the room in order to avoid conversations with his sister: playing with his dog, doing something on his iPad or just, sitting around. Ava, on the other hand, didn't move one bit. She had a tendency to tolerate Andy, and move him out of the room, by doing only a single thing. Being unorganised. In minutes, he’s out! For Ava, it works every single time, like a charm.

Like many, Andy is always in the stage of denial. When you tell him not everything can be perfect, hardly does he storm out of the room and rages. When the room is not neat and clean, Andy literally can’t breathe, such is his obsession with cleanliness.

‘You know this is called OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder’ Ava teased.

‘She’s not wrong, Andy. You need to stop clearing up the mess every minute. It’s a normal house, there is going to be a mess’ said his Mom.

As expected, he was never going to listen to what they said. No way were they going to convince him, they didn’t want to get toasted in a siblings’ conflict.

Disturbing times were ahead. Two of the most different people were trying to be in the same room, and avoid conflicts. There was always a smirk on Andy’s face while being in the room, while nothing really mattered to Ava. It was all but decided that Andy was going to move out to another room.

Everyone was dead silent for the next couple of days. Be it dinner time or while watching TV, there was not a single sound. After all the family time, everyone was engaged in their work. A disgruntled Andy washed his hands and as usual, used a towel to dry them. What wasn’t expected was an irritated look on Andy’s dad’s face. ‘Must be worried about work’ thought Andy.

Nothing had changed for the next few weeks. Andy spent a considerable amount of the day cleaning his dog’s treats and food basket, and the rest of the family were busy with their own work, until their dad finally broke the silence and directly spoke to Andy ‘Alright, that’s enough. I’ve been tolerating enough for the past few weeks’.

Andy didn’t have a clue of what his dad had just said. ‘What’re you talking about, dad?’ he questioned.

‘You’ve been keeping the towels in the wrong place after use, and isn’t it obvious that for 6 chairs we’ve got 6 towels? Everything was kept nicely, until you messed up!’ his dad yelled.

Andy didn’t care about what had happened and let go of it immediately. He tried to follow his dad’s instructions, but was again yelled at a few days later. His offence this time was changing the arrangement of the bathroom. He thought his dad was being silly and unreasonable, until he realised.

His dad was doing the same thing with him that he had done with his sister. In order to be perfect, Andy and his dad both opted for the wrong way ahead: yelling and getting angry at others! Everything was happening in the same manner. He eventually realised that his sister must’ve felt the same way as he did.

Andy did what he had to. He apologised to his sister for all the wrongdoings and moved back to his room. He had a discussion with his family regarding all his observations. The outcome was that you cannot force somebody into doing something, no matter how good the thing is. Andy realised that it was more important than being a good human, rather than being a perfect one. He changed himself, and the change didn’t make him try to change others.