Member-only story
Why You Should Stop Idolizing Other People
Idolizing the uniqueness of your own journey could be key to a happier life.
When I was in high school, I always wanted to be Kyle.
Kyle was athletic and played on the football team. Kyle was smart and excelled in school without even trying. Kyle had a beautiful girlfriend. Kyle had a rich family. Kyle was better than me at the video games that we played.
I used to ask the universe often “Why couldn’t I be Kyle?” I felt insignificant, lacking, and cursed for having been stuck as merely Matt.
I used to wish in secret that I could trade places with Kyle, that way I could experience his abundant life and he could know what it's like to be stuck with my crummy one.
I wanted to be Kyle because he had it all, or at least, so it seemed.
It wasn’t until many years later that I realized the idea of what I had imagined Kyle’s high-school life to be, was a product of my own low teenage self-esteem. I put Kyle’s life on a pedestal and idolized it when in reality, he didn’t have it all as I had imagined.
Although he was smart, Kyle struggled with applying his knowledge and forging his career path.
