On Being a Role Model

It was meant to be a restful weekend; the lil' munchkin is still with her grandma (God bless grandmothers, by the way), it literally rained all through the weekend, thereby keeping me indoors. You'd think I'd sleep, but somehow insomnia struck, so much that I couldn't even sleep at night. Not cool at all. So there I was with my thoughts, my music, and the Internet. Summary of my weekend. 

Watching the celebrities at the MTV VMAs that took place last night got me thinking about role models. We often hear people say this person or that person is my role model. Some choose their parents as role models, some choose celebrities, or other people who have achieved something in a particular field as their role models. 

A role model is supposed to be someone you admire and want to emulate for proper behaviour. Someone could be a positive or negative role model, for the people that think of a role model in terms of the positive aspect alone. Why do we choose the people we choose as our role models? Can we have more than one role model? Who is even my role model? I can't remember seeing anybody as my role model. This is in no way a castigation of the people that see others as their role models, however I feel that the term is over-rated. The person you may wish to emulate in your career might not be the person you wish to emulate spiritually, or their family life. Therefore, can one have more than one role model? Some people choose their parents, out of respect and modesty, I think. I mean, I love my parents soo much, but I don't consider them my role models, they're good at what they do, career and otherwise, however they have their paths, I have mine.

On the other hand, the people we choose as our role models, do they have to live up to our expectation? Do we put them under pressure? I mean, someone is living his/her life and suddenly someone somewhere feels, 'oh, there's my role model'; suddenly the pressure not to disappoint the people that look up to you and want to emulate you starts. I've heard people castigate some celebrities for their lifestyle, saying they are people's role models and therefore should live up to that. In my opinion, they didn't ask us to see them as role models, if the lifestyle of A is not worth emulating, move on to B. Don't expect A to change because you want to make him/her your role model.

If you have someone you wish to emulate, well and good, but most importantly, be YOU! Aim to be the best you can be (which might be better than your role model). Be original.

Have a pleasant week everyone.

Hugs...