At this unique time in my life, I’m learning that young adults both have and are role models. Young adults are an interesting group to study because they are mature enough to hold substantial jobs and meet high expectations, yet child-like enough to sometimes receive financial support from their families and get away with laughable excuses like “my dog (or roommate) ate my homework”. Though young adults were traditionally the most youth celebrity obsessed, recently they have intrigued all ages. For example, when I was a young girl, I might have only had Cinderella as a role model but now for those aged 6 to 14, Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers are the end-all-be-all of all of coolness. To women in their forties, Sarah Jessica Parker’s got killer abs, and to those in their thirties, Katie Holmes has impeccable style. This also holds true with men and their desire for the seemingly unattainable James Bond complex - nonchalant, charismatic and bold. Granted, Katie Holmes has a stylist, and, sorry boys, James Bond isn’t real, we continue to compare ourselves to our “celeb” role models and often focus on relatively trivial aspects of their lives. This uncovers a chain of falsity that is rapidly spreading in today’s culture - that only celebrities can be role models. In actuality, the media has simply dubbed celebrities as “more interesting” than the tanking economy, constantly commanding our attention to Los Angeles and away from Iraq.
One thing we can learn from Hollywood, however, is our fixation with changing the past and regret. The recent movie, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a perfect example of this because it is about age progression and lessons understood. While I haven’t actually seen the film, I have researched it and do understand that it conceptually proves that life is improved with, not hampered by, pain. It reminds us to focus on whatever has happened, good or bad, and to learn from the past, rather than regretting and condoning it. Although we cannot live our lives backwards or change our pasts, we can look to our role models and see how they have changed their pasts for better or for worse. We can learn what they have done right and what they have done wrong and learn from their mistakes as well as our own, and look to handle situations similarly to how they handle them.
Movies and role models alike show us and tell us things about ourselves. We, as human beings, learn what we think is important in life through such influences. We see someone do something we like or want to do, and we are inspired to adapt aspects of their motivation and character for use in our own lives. We grow to appreciate “regrets” from films like Benjamin Button, and if we take the time to think about why we have chosen specific role models and mantras to live respectively with and by, we can understand what we individually find to be important in life. We, unlike Benjamin Button, can only live life forward, but by studying ourselves and our elders, learning from others experiences and deciding what we want to prioritize in life, we can begin to make our lives just that much more fulfilling.
