I Blame Everyone who Believed in Me for Extinguishing my Fire to Succeed
When I was young, I was told I could be anything I put my mind to. Anything in the whole wide world. Everyone in my life told me the world was my oyster just waiting to be slurped up with some hot sauce and spritz of lemon.
Can I be a doctor when I grow up? “You most certainly can.”
Can I be an architect when I grow up? “You’ve got it, dear. I know you can do it.”
Can I be Batman when I grow up? “Well, no that’s actually not possible, he’s a fictional character. I think you need to stop watching so much TV, you’re starting to become a bit of an idiot.”
I was only surrounded by love and support from my parents and teachers my whole life growing up. And I completely blame them for my complete and utter lack of meteoric success.
Everyone knows that the best motivator isn’t an internal drive that we cultivate in ourselves and actively work to keep improving in our never-ending quest to achieve more and more. No, the best motivator is proving someone who doubted you wrong so you can rub it in their stupid little faces.
Biggie Smalls knew it. In his immortal words, “This album is dedicated to all the teachers that told me I’d never amount to nothin’… It’s all good, baby baby.” But what he really meant by “it’s all good” is “fuck you.”
You see, by giving me all that love and support and attention and access to higher education, my parents were taking away the one thing that I truly needed, a petty, yet intensely burning desire to prove them wrong. It’s like they didn’t even love me at all. Totally selfish.
Now, by not achieving much, I’m feeding into my personality quirk in which I need to be a contrarian on everything by proving them oh so wrong about being able to be whatever I want. Ha! Don’t they look foolish now?
I implore all those involved in rearing children, tell those kids they’ll never do anything with their lives. Maybe, just maybe, one day they’ll mention you when they’re accepting an award as the reason for their success. Although there’s a high probability the phrase, “suck it!” will be in their speech in reference to you at least once, it’s a small sacrifice to make to give them the gift of a drive for success.
