I grew in to my teens, and had different heroes. Various violinists, comedians like Paula Poundstone and Robin Williams, and a couple of my friends at the time who I just thought were so darn cool.
Now, my goal of a person to grow in to centers around two people I hear on my podcasts nearly every week: Ira Glass and Peter Sagal.
Both bespectacled, charming, witty, and with a terrific on-air speaking voice, these two NPR hosts hold the highest honor that I could possibly present to them from my point of view: I want to be them.
It's not just their gentle charisma - it's the fact that I think I may actually turn out like them. Ira Glass (on This American Life) spoke of the bond he and his wife share whenever The O.C. comes on the TV. They sit on the couch, and unabashedly sing the theme song to the show at the top of their lungs. He pointed out how this makes him love his wife - and the whole experience - even more every week. I think back to when Tom and I burst out into song along with that Diet Coke commercial simultaneously (This is the "I want to break free" days a few years ago) and didn't think twice about it until his roommate, Rob, looked at us and laughed. To love the person you're with so much that this sort of thing spontaneously happens is incredible and a point I never imagined I'd get to. I'm right there with you, Ira!
Peter Sagal's hospitable sense of commitment to his show, Wait, wait... don't tell me! exemplifies a sort of social priority I put on myself in group situations. I always want to seem like the quick-witted one without giving the impression that I'm some sort of star of the show. Peter Sagal is consistently funny and brilliant on the show (something I've always wanted people to say about me), and he seems like he's really got everything figured out just right. There's no need to prove himself to anybody... just listen to him!
*sigh* If only I, too, had graduated from Harvard.
There will be a day, I have no doubt, where I can write and pursue my musical career side by side. And it may be coming up sooner than I think.
After all, it's a possibility I'll be just scraping by for a few months after I get out of Northwestern, and I can only practice so many hours in a day in a town where I know no one. Perhaps I'll have a writing breakthrough and finally be able to appropriately express myself in a language that until that point in time has limited my emotional abilities.
Or, I'll just spend my days dreaming of hanging out and having a glass of wine in some comfortable bar somewhere with my buddies, Ira and Peter.
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