Popularity/Fame is not the Destination
Some of you, like me, have hopes of being famous. Others, maybe the high school crowd, have hopes of being popular in your school. To me they are the same thing, high school popularity and national fame. To some people, it is the goal, and to others, it is the means to a different goal.
I realized my goal wasn’t just to be famous when I realized that all fame meant was that people know who you are. People like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian rose to fame partly because of their family, partly because they made sex tapes, partly because they got into reality shows, and, I’m sure, partly because they are both talented, right? If that’s the sure fire way to get famous, than maybe being “famous” isn’t the only objective. Along the same lines, if hooking up with the most popular guy or popular girl in school can get you popular, maybe being popular isn’t the perfect goal.
I think a better perspective of wanting to be popular or famous is saying, I want to be famous for being myself and use my fame for a bigger purpose than to serve myself. Same goes with being popular…
If someone said to you, “You can be more popular, you just have to be cooler, you have to get into more trouble, you have to go to more parties.” Is it worth being popular if that is not who you are? Or maybe you are someone who likes getting into trouble and going to parties and someone said, “To be more popular in this prestigious school, you need to clean up, suck up to the teachers, be a prime athlete, and get perfect grades.” If that isn’t you, is it worth changing yourself to be popular?
Fame is the same scenario. If a big-shot manager said to me, “I think you have a lot of potential kid. I can make you into a star. You would just have to sing these songs we wrote about partying, living for the moment, and our sure-fire hit about cheating on your girlfriend (kinda like that one Enrique Inglesias song).” Under those circumstance, I’d have to politely decline fame. Of course I’d like to be famous, but if I can’t be famous being myself and following through with what my fame can do to help others, I don’t think it is worth it.
The same theory can go for you. The more you know yourself, your personality, your goals, your beliefs, your closest friends/family; the more you know where to draw certain lines. If being popular/famous means changing who you are, than maybe it’s not worth it for you. After all, fame is not supposed to be the goal or the destination; it is supposed to be only part of the journey of you finding who you are.
