Do you remember when you were a kid?  Well…for some of us that’s an easy point to remember. For older folk like me, it can be a bit of a chore. Hehehe However, I am sure that all of us can remember being asked what we wanted to be when we grew up, right? I wanted to play soccer or baseball professionally. Sadly, I didn’t have the drive to do either, though I still dearly love both sports. But my parents had dreams for me as well.

Both of my parents worked in the medical professions, so there was a keen desire for me to follow in those soft, muddy shoes. Honestly, there is not one thing that draws me to the medical professions of any sort. Unless you can allow that a computer technician is a sort of “doctor” for electronic technology. So maybe I did follow in their footsteps, to some extent. And I am sure that your parents – whoever happens to be reading this – had designs on what you were going to be when you “grew up” according to society’s standards. Right?

So, you were being aimed towards some sort of template that would turn you into something. Your job does the same thing. They send you to training associated with your job, so that you will meet these basic-level criteria of what your job function can accomplish. Your friends might do it. They set you up with a potential significant other, because he or she might be your “type” – some form of template of what a significant other might look like at your side in Life. Or they will make some sort of commentary about how you need to “do this” or “be that way” when you are off to visit a foreign country. They have a cardboard cutout – in their mind’s eye – of how you should or shouldn’t act or behave in another country or what questions you should or shouldn’t ask. Most of all that can be very sound advice, but its all based on their cognitive understand of the world, not yours.

The reality is that you really need to act like an honorable you. You don’t need to be a cardboard cutout, or be following some Gods-awful template. What you wind up with is a version of yourself that is not you. I am not sure about you, but if I presented myself before the Gods in an archetypal manner – I’m likely to have talons stuck in my ass as I get shoved back through the door. I took an interest in learning about the Gods and Goddesses because I saw Them as unique, self-contained entities with distinct personalities. I sincerely believe that They see each of us in the same manner. And I also believe that if They presented Themselves to us in a similar archetypal vein, that we would find no reason to interact with Them on an honesty, caring, and respectful manner.

So I tend to bristle when I hear people saw that someone needs to be “this way” or “do this thing” in order to be “that person.” If I truly wanted to wear the face of someone else or achieve the same mannerisms as another, I would have gone to see the Many-Faced God and go through the training that Arya Stark endured. My Gods and Goddess are all unique in Their interactions with me, so why would I want to interact with Them based off of a template or someone else’s interactions. Certainly, in the first interactions, utilizing some of the same techniques and concepts would be handy, but I would certainly find a need to stretch my legs and my imagination by adding and subtracting to the format, so I can find an approach that is uniquely “me”.

Now, maybe I have overblown things. Maybe a template approach works for others. Hooray, that works for them. I find that to be awesome. And I would certainly never dissuade someone from something that they have find to work. Rather, I would be overjoyed for them, and ecstatic that they have an approach that works well. They have achieved victory in part of the “battle” so to speak. Their footfalls work for them. What kind of an ass would I be if I sneered at that?? No, I find that to be stellar stuff. Its just doesn’t work for me. And if its a technique I have never seen or attempted to utilize…I might give it a try myself. I am always up for adopting techniques (yeah, stealing from the best – if you prefer) that might be better approaches. Or even filing different approaches off to the side for usage at another time and place.

Really, in the end – I don’t have to be anything that someone else thinks I need to be. I merely have to be me, and stay true to who I am inside of my own skin. Its nice and lovely for folks to say “you need to do this” or “you need to do that” in order that you might do this other thing over here. I might even follow someone’s advice for the first time I do that particular action. But I can almost guarantee – in the future, I’ll do what works for me, because to do anything else, would be me choosing to not be me.