I recently met a man who emailed me through Facebook. I figured he was just trying to get to know me…then I realized something greater. Within 2 minutes of our chat, he told me he was a woman trapped in a man’s body and was debating transitioning from man to woman. My reply was simply, “I am a huge proponent of people doing whatever it is that makes them happy.” We chatted about this and that, then he admitted to wanting to look like a certain celebrity from the 70s. She is indeed beautiful…but I couldn’t help but reply, “She’s beautiful…but I think you should be you…that is the most beautiful.”

That got me thinking. How many of us want to “be” someone else? Some people take admiration and mentorship beyond what it is meant to do…build them into an even better version of themselves. They don’t realize how they minimalze their experience in this reality by actually wanting to be someone else. I do understand the “what would it be like to be so-and-so”…but truly, this experience of “the self” is so unique…please don’t waste a minute on not wanting to be you.