I Want to be Someone Else

Considering how much I have moved, I’ve often thought about what it would be like to just become a different person the next time I move. I’m not talking about just changing the superficial aspects like the way I dress or talk. I’m talking about even going by a different name and a completely different persona. I mean, if I were to move to a new town and tell everyone that my name was Jim, it wouldn’t take very long before everyone knew me as Jim, regardless of what my government name was. Everything I did would be viewed by everyone else as, “well that’s just the way Jim is.” Of course the way “Jim is”, is merely a figment of my imagination, a persona that I one day made-up and decided to embody. I call this my “Fight Club Fantasy,” my own version of Tyler Durden; the man who, “looks like you wanna look, f**ks like you wanna f**k, is smart, capable, and most importantly, free in all the ways that you are not.” I mean who says that I have to continue being the same person I’ve been all my life?

Many might say that this is a fun fantasy, but not something that any real person could do because too many people know the “real you”. And while this may be true, many of us are actually given the opportunity to do this at least once in our lives if not twice. If you’re like me,the first chance you got was when you left home to go to college, if you’re really lucky you decided to go to a college where you knew absolutely no one else. While this may seem scary to some of you, the beauty of it is that if you move somewhere that you don’t know anyone, then no one knows you either. Imagine the freedom that comes with not being known by anyone, don’t run from this freedom, embrace it, become that person you’ve always wanted to be; embrace your own Tyler-esque alter-ego, see if it works for you. You may really enjoy the person you get to become or it may scare the sh!# out of you, but at least you gave it a shot and never have to wonder what it may have been like to be the person you’ve always wanted to be.

Of course you may not be able to launch into your new persona in one day because of current relationships you have. Even Jesus recognized this when he told his followers that “no prophet is accepted in his hometown”. As skeptical as you still might be that this is possible, you see people every day that begin to go through this process by targeting a single aspect of their persona. Think about the guy you know that went from being a couch potato to a fitness nut or the classic under-achiever who becomes a successful entrepreneur. Changing who you are is not some unattainable fantasy it is merely a conscious decision to change, and to hell what anyone else who thinks they know about you. Others will always have trouble reconciling the “you” they used to know with the “you” they see now, but that’s their problem to deal with, not yours. Tomorrow is a new day and the question you have to ask yourself at the end of the day today is who will wake up tomorrow: You, or Jim?

Photo by puuikibeach via Flickr