Find ‘WHO’ in ‘YOU’ or in those you make your ‘IDOLS?’

The writer of the article you’ll get to read after the cut, Omoyibo Kelvin Akpobome has earned my respect absolutely with this write up. In his usual His_Storyteller way of presenting issues, he has brought to light how we end up getting lost finding who we are by idolising others, especially, the celebrated ones, sometimes, unaware. This is refining of raw art.

Click here to get personal with him.  You’ll have me to thank for it later.

“I use to have you as an Idol, I wanted to copy you and do the things you do. You always seemed so perfect and everything about you seemed like a perfect fit. Just like an obsessed teenager I saw you as cool and I wasn't. Captivated by the things you do and how you do them, I tried to copy you and not just the way you walked but the way you leaned from side to side when you walk, the way you wink when you smile exposing just a few set of your perfect teeth.

I hated my big brown eyes from the first day I saw yours and even though everybody else thinks my eyes are gorgeous, I still didn't want them simply because they weren't like yours, I loved your eyes, a perfect blend of white and a touch of brown at the middle, I tried to copy that too, engaging in a series of fruitless attempts to convert my brownish eyes to white, I tried using eye drops, eye whiteners and even tried slicing onions in order to make me cry(shame on Google for making me think that it could work) but like I said it was all fruitless.

You were my icon, secretly stalking you on facebook, liking the things you like and studying your comments like it was an English textbook. I copied the slangs you used and I shared and read every of your post even though I had no idea what it meant (as if my ideas really mattered).

It was all about you, I followed you everywhere and not just on twitter, I re-tweeted your tweets and shared all your post, with fingers crossed, hoping that one day you would notice me and if I'm lucky I could get a follow back from you. I knew all your status by heart and was a walking encyclopaedia of you.

I loved the things you loved and hated the things you hate, to me you were a total blend of perfect, but there was just one tiny problem, you are a still mortal. A man, although perfect but you were still created and something on the inside of me knew I wasn't meant to be 'you'.

Even though I may not want to admit it, the truth is for every time I tried to copy you, I lost a piece of me. I was so focused on being you that I forgot who I was really meant to be, just like an actor, I got so caught up in playing the role of a perfect man that I lost my original script and forgot about the role I was really meant to play, ‘ME’.

Like pieces of puzzles, there were two of you and none of me, hence the game could never be balanced, just like dividing a number by zero, me trying to be you would render me undefined.

So sitting down here and thinking about my idol, I realise that although you are the definition of awesome, but one you is enough and the world can't survive without atleast one version of me.

So to my 'used to be' idol, I say goodbye, no more of it all, we had a good time together(even though you weren't really there) and beside I've got a new Idol now, this one is immortal and true, although he is needed by all he still has time for me, in fact he thinks about me all the time, in his love letter to me, he said his mind is so full of me, he talks about the plans he has for me and it calms my heart. He is immortal and invincible yet he made me in his image, He is my one true Idol.

So yes, I choose to be like him, because that is who he created me to be and no one else. Our perfect idol in Mathew 5 Vs 48”.

Cheers!