Alter Egos
Kim is happy with her achievements so far but would love to do more with her life. Now that she’s not working for “The Man” she’s kinda shitting herself. A bit scared that she’s going to fail but defiant about succeeding. Insistence from family members and friends that it’ll be easy to go back if she fails leave her feeling half reassured and half like they don’t believe she can make it.
Ms Mace Constantine on the other hand is faking it till she makes it. Mace never takes any shit and would have quit her day job on a whim anyway. She doesn’t care what people think about her, and thinks that if most people don’t understand the culture of the Internet nerd that’s their own problem.
In our constant quest to better ourselves we break the person we want to be into little steps. Identifying the things we love, the things we want to be, and then pretending that we already have them. It’s easy to pretend when we’re online, when we’re with people we don’t know, or when we’re drunk.
When we act like someone else, we take on the persona of our alter egos. Anything bad that happens, happens to the alter ego. It can be shrugged off, discarded. We can abandon any personality traits that don’t serve us. We can also use an alter ego as a stepping stone in becoming more confident and adventurous. Eventually the things your alter ego does will be the things you do and become another facet of your personality. It’s like hiring a personality until you can make it full time.
So who are you really? And who do you want to be?
8 Responses to “Alter Egos”
Great post. In my own life I have to distinct personalities that have been inside of me since around adolescence, the dark V.v. and light and bouncy Minxie. There have been times when one of them will entirely take over the personality and other times when I try to push them down. But the large spectrum of personalities is what makes us interesting.
Aimee Marie would like to be a photographer & blogger/writer extraordinaire. It would be a silly idea for her to quit her job on a whim right now, as she doesn’t have nearly as much business/cash behind her as needed, but hopes that when the time is right, she will know & be brave & triumphant! Aimee Marie likes this post. ;D
Aimee Marie sounds very smart. I’m sure that when the time is right she’ll make the leap. It’s the best feeling!
Oh my! This is so bang on! I have several alter-egos..it all gets very confusing sometimes! I’ve been simi for so long, but sometimes Bonnie (the real “me”) can’t quite live up to simis expectations! Bonnie is rather reclusive , dark and introverted, whereas simi is quite loopy and “out there”. But they are both very real parts of my persona. It’s always been that way! Then there is Lady Vonne Von Vonne aka SUPERSIMI! : irreverant, kooky-she crosses over into simi territory, but is more of a cartoon superhero.
This all doesnt make much sense! Bonnie does wish to submit to simi more often, but simi just needs to stop for a little bit and draw up some proper battle plans with Lady Vonne Von Vonne first:)
Great post!
Lol. Great comment. Especially love the name Lady Vonne Von Vonne!
Whoa! One of my favourite posts so far on CupcakesandMace!!
I am moving from the world of working with ‘disadvantaged teens (I actually think their rebelliousness gives them more advantages!!)’ to training in the corporate world soon & have to do some major identity shifting work – enhancing the me that is & the other me that could be & in amongst all of that I want to make enough money to do what I really want to do! I’m gonna hunt me down some ace photos like you’ve got for your alter egos awesome idea!
I can never find “me” amongst all the studying and uptightness and obeying rule-ness and all the striving for achievement. I’m only me (ditzy, bully and hyper!) when I write…
We’ve all got to start somewhere. Writing’s just your place to jump off. Eventually you’ll merge into your writer self full time if that’s where you want to be.
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