Role Models

© by Gerald So | geraldso.blogspot.com

Nickelodeon star Jennette McCurdy is the latest celebrity to assert she isn't a role model. If saying so only made it so, the perceived pressure would be off.

The truth is anyone may be a role model to someone else. Often enough, one never even knows it. I agree with McCurdy that people shouldn't model themselves after anyone entirely. Just as we think of ourselves as flawed, individual heroes are bound to let us down in one aspect or another.

I aspire to qualities cherry-picked from all sorts of people, some I know personally, some historical figures, and yes, some athletes and actors. I've decided what I admire and what I don't about these people. The ideal I strive for isn't tied to any one of them. I'm shaping my own identity, not conforming to someone else's.