Glad not to be famous.....

I remember when one of my little cousins had the aspirations to grow up one day and be a dinosaur. She loved animals and at the stage in life she was at - to be a dinosaur - meant the high life. Sadly kids grow up - and realize that maybe the dreams they once had are not exactly plausible. I'm sure if she really wanted to pursue the life of a dinosaur should could have be the next "Barney"... or she even could have worked along the same lines as Ross from FRIENDS and studied dinosaurs. She started high school this year and has adapted her career aspirations to be either a horse owner/trainer or to become a vet. She even decided this year that she's now a vegetarian.
Kids have wonderful ideas - that often change frequently depending on their age - about what to do when they grow up. With "reality" shows such as survivor, idol, so you think you can dance, apprentice, etc... it is clear that many more individuals want to have their cahnce at fame. Thanks to the internet, let alone reality television, it seems many more individuals get their chance.
However, it still takes either hard work, or a "who you know" status to get to C, B, or even A list celebrity levels. I'll admit it - I've thought about being an actress - even once thought it would be cool to be Britney Spears - to make records and travel around putting on shows for people. I might not have the best singing voice, but I can dance and I can act - so I'm pretty much a tripple threat! My dad even knew people in the acting business! His old acting partner was Victor Garber... my dad only acted for fun. I use to do a bunch of plays - and I actually miss the stage - whether its for acting or dancing - I enjoyed those moments up there - not because people were watching me - but because I got to express myself through someone that wasn't "me" - so it was a sense of freedom I suppose.
I'm glad I never became famous though.
Sure there are a lot of people who become famous and still manage to stay out of the public eye - but there are others who are plastered everywhere - Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan..... to just begin a list - and really - even if I had all the money in the world - I wouldn't want their lives. There are other people that we haven't really heard from in a while like Brad Renfro who died last week, and just today Heath Ledger has now died due to what appears to be obvious drug overdose. I don't want to ever be exposed to a world like that - and I know that you don't have to have some relation to fame to get mixed up with all of it --- I'm just glad that I'm not.
I'm so happy to have the friends I have - I've got the best ones in the world - I'd argue with anyone who tried to state otherwise. I even am pretty lucky to have the family I have -
Although I'm in an interesting "funk" at the moment and can't seem to get out of the neutral gear and into drive.... I'm still happy to have the people in my life that I do - and wouldn't trade them in for all the fame and money in the world.