What Am I To Be?
Posted on | April 22, 2010
This is not who I thought I’d become. I really didn’t. Does any of our plans, when we were playing on the school grounds, ever come true?
I should be taller.
More hair.
Richer.
I have my dream house in the Hollywood Hills already planned out. Throwing my head back in witty banter with Angelina Jolie whilst we soak in my “forever pool” that looks like it bleeds into the Pacific.
Cosmopolitans for all my guests.
Watching George Clooney throw up by the avacado tree because he succumbed to one too many gin and tonics.
Ahhh, I can see it now. Mat Damon gabbing with Robert Downey Jr. about the trappings of fame. Terri Hatcher’s bikini strap falling off her shoulder, promising to expose her bodacious boobs. Oh and let’s not forget the Dalia Lama, in that crimson bed sheet of his bantering with Maya Angelou and Deepak Chopra.
All the while whispers of, “This is the best party. EVER!”
I’m not trying to dwell on all the negatives but I look at my life, and frankly, when I was a kid, this was not to be the current stream of my destiny.
It was supposed to be a life of fame. I should have already won my Oscar1 by now. I should be on the couches of all the talk shows, selling my wares like Kate Gosselin hawking her bowl movements on Ebay.
Reminiscing with Barbra Walters on what kind of tree I should be. Yakking it up with Jay Leno on my current film which, surely, would garner me my second Academy Award. Innuendo-ing with David Letterman on the perils of fame.
But it’s not all that bad.
I was at work a while ago, when up on the TV screen was “Entertainment Tonight Canada” and I asked that it be turned off. My supervisor asked why and my retort was, “I don’t want to see all those Canadians who’ve gotten their turn.”
He replied, “Look around you. Here you are a star.”
That blew me away. Just that little acknowledgment that I make a difference helped. Made me see life in a very different way.
I work with developmentally handicapped adults and while I get the proverbial nod of, “Oh you must be a very special person to work with them” (which I find condescending by the way) and a smile of kindness I look around me and I see those who find their happiness in what they don’t have.
And to make them laugh, listen to their problems, solve a small crisis.
That is important.
So maybe I’m not tall, not rich or famous. But the people I serve have taught me something even better.
Be happy with what you have.
Now how can I grow some hair?
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April 29th, 2010 @ 9:57 am
If I win the lottery Rob, I will buy you your forever pool. It will look like its flowing right into Lake Ontario. That way you can have your pool and still be their star. And when I say to you “It takes a special person to do what you do.” it’s not meant to be condescending. It’s meant as a compliment because you tried a job that I know there is no way I would even try, no way I could fathom doing what what you do.