Don’t lose your identity when forced to change

Published 1:00 pm Wednesday, April 21, 2021

 

There is nothing better than sitting down and watching your favorite television show. I did just that recently except once I sat down and got comfortable, I realized I had lost the TV remote.

I did what any normal American would do in this situation. I remained seated and I watched what was playing. You didn’t think I was going to actually get up and look for the remote did you?

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I was unsure what I was watching. Something about housewives living together and they were obviously not happy about it as they were bickering and fighting back and forth. I figured this show had to be made for people who had lost their remote controls. I can’t imagine anyone tuning into this show on purpose.

Normally, I am able to skip through the commercials of the show that I’m watching. However, since the remote had vanished into thin air I was forced to view them as well. Actually, the commercials were a relief from the horrible show I was watching.

As I was sitting there hypnotized by the commercials for food products, I began to notice a trend in the advertisements for restaurants. It seems that the big hamburger restaurants are advertising everything except for hamburgers. They seem to be boasting about their chicken sandwiches more than their hamburgers.

I’m no rocket scientist but why would I go to a hamburger restaurant if I wanted a chicken sandwich? I don’t go to chicken restaurants for hamburgers?

It seems that many restaurants of today have lost their identity.

Watching these restaurants trying to be what they aren’t started me thinking and I soon found myself lost in thought.

I remembered a time when I too tried to be something that I was not. When I started high school back in 1982, I was scared to say the least. I had spent the last eight years of my life in the same school with the same group of kid’s. Now, I was going to a larger school and would be mixed with kids from all over the county. I decided that it was time for me to change to blend in with the crowd.

I informed my parents that I would need an entirely new wardrobe that consisted of a pair of Adidas shoes and a bunch of shirts with the little alligators on the chest and a brand new Michael Jackson leather zippered coat. We normally got new clothes for school but I was shocked when my parents came back with my new school clothes and they were just plain ol’ jeans and shirts.

Instead of being appreciative for the new clothes, I became upset that my parents didn’t purchase the trendy clothes that I asked for. It was then that my father sat me down and gave me a lesson about always being true to yourself.

He said that we should never change who we are in order to please someone else. We should be who we are and be the best at whatever you do. He assured me that everything would be fine at the new school. Wise advice that many of these restaurants should heed as well.

I realized those commercials about food had made me hungry so I convinced myself to get up for a snack. Once I went in the kitchen, I saw the remote control laying on the counter. No idea how it got there.

I blame the mice that think I don’t know they live under the sink. I went back and sat down to enjoy my snack only to realize I had forgotten the remote control once again in the kitchen.

Looks like I’m watching a marathon of the housewife’s show. Lord help me.