When we were younger we looked up to others,
For wisdom, guidance, and hope.
We looked up to parents, sisters, or brothers,
Or sometimes people who don’t really exist.
We bought costumes of our favorite superheroes,
Quoted some of their most famous phrases,
Collected books and movies about them, filling rows
And rows of shelf space in our rooms.
We ate our idols’ favorite snacks,
Dressed like them, spoke like them, obsessed over them,
Sketched pictures of them, each day adding to the stacks,
Showing off what we knew about them, but our friends didn’t.
We often bring this tendency with us as we grow.
We still look up to others for ideas,
For answers to questions we don’t yet know,
For opinions on anything that comes to mind.
Many of us dress like our friends at the lunch table,
Or the “popular” people in school.
We want that same “popular” label.
We want to fit in and be looked up to.
When does this conformity go too far?
When are we too much like others, not enough like ourselves?
When to we look up too much to a superstar?
When do we lose sight of who and what we are?
When we look up too much to others,
When we try too hard to be someone else,
When we forget what makes os special and unlike others,
We are reduced to little blobs of gray.
Once this happens, how are we to tell
One simple blob of gray from another?
How could we tell when everyone starts to look and smell
And talk and dress and act the same?
What would happen to art,
Which we base on individual creativity?
How could anyone stand apart
From others in their unique way?
There’s nothing wrong with looking up to others,
But we must not conform too much to others’ molds.
We must not create the gray that smothers
Anything that is different, when we all are meant to be different.
