15 minutes of Fame

These days it seems like everyone is famous for at least 15 minutes. Or maybe its just five minutes but it sure does appear that everyone, especially young people are obsessed with being a celebrity. Look at all of the reality type shows on television now. People standing in front of so called industry judges singing (very badly I might add) at the top of their lungs trying for fame and fortune; or prancing up and down a runway or posing vogue in front of cameras aiming to be the next top model.

We sit glued to the television listening to people say that they want to have plastic surgery so they can look like some glamorous model or we hear these wannabe singers talk about living the dream and failure is not an option for them or they gush that they have worked all their life to reach this moment and most of them are not even past 20 yet!
Even in the sports arena, you see young people thinking that every one of them going to be the next great quarterback of the NFL or something along those lines. They all want to be rich and famous. What lofty goals our young people have now days.

Young people think fame is their birthright. They have a sense of entitlement that is bigger than anything I have ever seen. Kids (as well as some adults!) look at these reality shows and think “I can do that” and that becomes their life’s ambition. The majority of kids leaving schools today no longer want to be study to be doctors or lawyers or architects or teachers or rocket scientists or plumbers or electricians; they want to be famous. They want to be celebs; they think being a celebrity is the short track to wealth and happiness and they are firmly convinced that it will bring them everything they ever wanted. There is an entire generation WORLD WIDE apparently, that thinks if you have a lot of money and material things then you will be happy and they don’t understand that nothing worth having is going to come without a lot of blood, sweat and tears, work and scrabbling to the make it.

As a parent I have always tried to tell my girls that they can be anything they set their mind on but that it takes hard work and perseverance as well as being in the right place at the right time. I am a classically trained artist and a good one. I had the opportunity to work in a couple of major cities where the world of commercial art is strong but I choose a long time ago to stay in Mississippi. Would I have been rich and famous had I gone somewhere else? I can’t say. Maybe. Maybe not. Do I regret not taking the big leap? Nope. I had and still have the talent but having the talent isn’t the be all and end all of it. I was not cut throat enough to survive and I saw that pretty early on in my career. So I chose to stay close to home to be with family and to raise a family. Even now at the age of 56, I still am not cut throat enough for some things.

Watching all this debacle about the state of education in our state has made me think about a few things. I have never thought kids get a good enough education in our state. Not on the public level anyway. The teachers might as well be hog tied for all of the restrictions and for the things they are required to do. And how they do it with what little they get paid…well my hat is off to them. But I do get tired of buying reams of copy paper for each of my daughters’ classes. I have complained about that ever since they reentered the public school system.

I home schooled my daughters until their junior years in high school. Why? Because I could and because I felt that I could offer them a much broader education than they would ever get in the public school system. It was hard work for 9 years and we all learned a lot and did a lot of things. They sometimes thought I was crazy for the things that I presented to them to learn about but the one that is now a junior in college finally understands some of the things I was pushing her to learn. I knew when she got to the university level she would understand. Now both my girls are looking forward to their higher education and making plans for their future.

I haven’t heard the phrase ‘I want to be famous’ out of either of them but the spark is probably there. With a good solid education and a lot of hard work, hopefully they will have learned a good trade and have a worthy career and find their 15 minutes of fame and hold on to it. I just hope and pray that there are kids out there that still think being a nurse and doctor and a tech is good. There needs to be more respect for the plumber and the electrician too. Those are very worthy careers. It’s better to be a great in demand electrician and plumber than a mediocre singer or anorexic model.