Never Meet Your Heroes… But Meet Them Anyway
On expectations, parasocial relationships, and Brandon Sanderson.
Everyone has someone in their life that they look up to.
Maybe it’s a parent. Maybe it’s a sibling. Maybe it’s a close friend. Maybe it’s a teacher or a professor. Maybe it’s a coach.
Everyone also has someone not in their life that they look up to — someone they don’t have regular chances to interact with.
Maybe it’s an actor. Maybe it’s an athlete. Maybe it’s an artist. Maybe it’s a YouTuber or a streamer. Maybe it’s an inventor.
I’ve… always been wary of what is, essentially, hero worship. My parents own countless (auto)biographies of their own heroes, from Sting (I can respect that) to Alex Trebek (I can definitely respect that) to Elon Musk (*gags*). While I don’t own any (auto)biographies myself, I’d be a big, fat hypocrite not to admit that there’s one personal hero I put on a pedestal.
Stan Lee.
His passing in 2018 rocked my world. I could not and still cannot imagine a person who I’d never met who’s affected my life so much. Funnily enough, I almost did meet him at a New York Comic Con I attended several years ago — his last NYCC, in fact. Only, I bought a ticket for the wrong day. Live and learn…
