I don’t want to be famous

When I was still in college, I lived in a relatively cheap housing setup with four other roommates my junior and senior years. One of my roommates asked me what it was that I wanted out of life one night because he saw that I wasn’t dating anyone formally and put a lot of effort into school. I told him that I didn’t want to live an ordinary life. I’m not really sure how he responded to that statement. Did he think that I wanted to be famous in the celebrity sense? I didn’t. I didn’t really mean I wanted to be a movie actor or any of those things, not that there’s anything wrong with that life.

But at the end of the day, I don’t want to be famous. I don’t want other people on the street recognizing me and coming up to me for photographs. I just want to be a normal human being. However, I want my work to have impact and to matter. I think that’s why I work so hard, or do what other people perceive to be hard work. I witnessed it as a child from my parents and reenacted that effort toward what it is I wanted in my life.