Here is a vintage napkin from 2004, given to my daughter, Chelsea, close to the last day of her senior year in high school.
One of the most amazing things about watching kids grow up is seeing them trying on different personas to see how they fit. The ones they will try on first and most often are those of their parents obviously. But they will try on their friends’ and teachers’ as well. Eventually what started out as a series of ‘pretendings’, of ‘acting adult’ will coalesce into part of who they become.
Some will have those variations close to the self they are really comfortable with, others will have those roles take over and become them, even if it isn’t anywhere near their true soul.
I wanted Chelsea, and all my daughters, to know that what you pretend, or practice, is what you will become so choose your role models and your roles carefully. Let them be true to the real self inside you.
For those of us who are well past high school and the pretending we did once is now a person we hardly know the only thing to say is to start practicing the real you now. If you don’t know who that real you is, then pick something fun, that makes you smile and play with that. If you do, the real you will come out.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“We are what we pretend to be.” – Kurt Vonnegut, 1922-2007, American Author
