Have a Role Model
"How're you gonna be a black role model if you never had one?!" - 30 Rock, S06E22
Ok, so maybe that quote doesn't apply to all of you, but... the point still stands. As this quote is said to Tracy in one of my favourite shows, 30 Rock, he realises that he needs a role model. It's true, everyone does. A lot of people don't have one - my friend, Lauren, has been struggling recently with things concerning her future. I asked her what ambitions she has, what she wants to do.
'Do you not have a role model?' I gasped, and as she replied with a firm, 'no', I realised the importance of people to aspire to.
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| Sarah Silverman! |
For me, I have a few. When I'm older I plan on being a filmmaker, so, in those terms, my role model is Quentin Tarantino. He's made films such as Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds, Kill Bill, Jackie Brown - just to name a few. Sixties and seventies films inspired him, and he inspired me. In terms of life in general, I have a few role models - Sarah Silverman, J.K. Rowling, Tina Fey and Geena Davis. These people, specifically Sarah, have simply helped me get on with... life. They've shaped my personality, and helped me get over humps in my life. As a sufferer of clinical depression, I've found that (apart from huge doses of music) role models can act as antidepressants. They show you who you can be, who you want to be and who you're supposed to be. They become the paradigms of happiness in your insipid life - and when you're as solitary as me, or your life is as mundane as mine, this can be relieving.
So, you're not really interested in current day's society, or you really have no idea what you want to do with your life? The answer is this: you already have a role model. It's you. A role model influences someone's life, and while I look up to others to believe in myself, at the end of the day, my role model is me. You influence yourself. You decide who you want to be, you decide who you're going to be. Be your own role model, live your life - then be someone else's. Light up someone's life - if it be your fans, your friends, your family - teach them how to believe in others, then teach them how to believe in themselves. Because, eventually it falls to you to remove the solitude and mundanity from your life.
