What Do You Wanna Be?

“I’ll ask a kid, ‘What do you want to be?’ and no one has ever told me, ‘I want to be a dope dealer.’ They all want to be somebody; they want to be something.” ~ Oral Lee “Mama” Brown


I guess I've never really thought about it…

*mulls*

Well of course no one grows up saying they want to be a dope dealer! People don't grow up saying they want to be the biggest gossip on the block, or a manipulative cad either. And yet… there they are: opportunists who degrade good deeds or prey on other’s misfortune in an effort to elevate themselves away from their personal failures.

I’ve thought about how opportunity breeds success – and also how it can breed contempt, false ego, jealousy, hate, love, and disappointment. Pretty slippery slope if you ask me.

Semi-interesting thought: do we measure our success based on other people’s failure? I’m in no way condoning the use or distribution of mood altering illegal substances here, but for the sake of argument, is the dealer a success when he’s the first in his family to own a car? Or a failure based on his means of procurement?

Am I a success because I write every day, or a failure because I haven’t finished my book?

Are you a success because you “won” an argument, or a failure for not acting like a grown-up?

I was once told – by the least likely of people – to stop being disappointed when friends turn out to be merely opportunists. Man, there’s some advice I should’ve heeded! But I didn’t. I’m still stupidly compelled to believe in people, to give them the opportunity to be who they always wanted to be, or to use a mulligan. I learned this from my sister.

When I was little I wanted to be Miss America, a Kansas City Chiefette, a junior high school teacher, a movie star, a singer, a lawyer, a US senator, an orphan, a dancer, or a writer. I suppose three out of ten isn’t so bad, but still… none were quite how I imagined.

I guess that’s the point, really.

We all wanted to be something when we were small, but opportunity or chance or luck or good timing or bad timing or a left turn or a question or a person or a tragedy or love… changed what we wanted to become, into who we would become.

Own it. Change it. Live it. Embrace it or toss it away. It’s a life of your own making. I don't believe it’s ever too late to start again.

"It's never too late to be who you might have been." ~ George Eliot

Mulligan!