If I were to guess, I'd say that everybody has karmic relatives in show business. These people may be doppelgangers, as in look-alikes, or they could represent another reflection of you, like a personality trait.
If this article were called "Discovering Your Celebrity Doppelgangers," I could list the few celebrities that I've been told I resemble: Blake Lively, Julianne Moore, and Tina Fey. The Fey reference came once when wearing glasses and at other times.
I once had a boss tell me I looked just like Moore to which I was surprised. That was new and it must have mirrored on my face when he replied,"that's not a bad thing! " I tend to mostly accept the Moore reference, but they all blend together, personifying different aspects about me and I agree with all of them in some respects. Like Blake's hair color is close to mine and so is the length, plus we both love California and bohemian fashion.
The following list is of characters and explanations of why they've reminded me of myself, in no particular order.
Spencer Reid of "Criminal Minds"
I have three degrees and so does Spencer Reid.
We both have what I'd consider an eidetic memory, or very close to it. Auditory mentions are easily forgotten by me, but show me a picture and I'll never forget it.
We've both survived terrible ordeals and struggled with traumas that most will never experience. The same can be said of my following Astro-kin below, but I'll note it here.
I learned to speak simple Spanish when I was five. I remember kindergarten, even being given a spatial test. When I was called to the table, I deliberately threw the test preparer off, by omitting some answers that I knew were correct, then waited to see if she noticed.
I identify with Spencer because we retain details about history and data, then refer back to that like hotcakes. Scanning a written document, super fast, as a way, to sum it up is a common occurrence for me, although Spence can digest written words much faster.
We're both big on stats, not into flirting and analytical. Most teachers want to pull their hair out over assessments, while I find them fascinating. Yes, it's true.
Sadly, we've both been bullied and grew up related to people with serious problems that affected us, while simultaneously frightening us. Despite that unlucky break, we are dedicated to family and nerdy.
I performed as an average student in advanced schools and programs while growing up. I was bored a lot and rarely applied myself unless motivated or challenged. Still keeping in touch with the few teachers who really inspired me, back then it took an enormous amount of conviction for me to trust an adult as so many of them had let me down.
The reason I bring this up is that I never studied, I crammed. I'd recall most things for a long time too. With standard grades, I didn't have to try hard to prevail and I was alright with that. But, on the few occasions, where I practiced discipline, I managed honor rolls and straight-As. Maybe Reid is not like that, but I get how he is a brain and hardly has to try to pass.
Olivia Benson, "Law & Order: SVU"
Olivia Benson is a diamond in the rough. She's tough, smart, funny, hardworking, compassionate and passionate about justice.
So am I.
When I first met my present-day instructor, I'd been through a hell that Olivia Benson wouldn't blink if she heard it. The next day, my new teacher asked me what I wanted, ie. what was my goal? I had the opportunity to wish for anything in the entire universe, I suppose like money, clothes, a boyfriend, or fame. When it came time to select something, I claimed justice.
Call it a continuance from an invisible beckon from the goddess Athena, that started in high school. I became infatuated with Greece, making homemade baklava and earned a key interest in governing while protecting what is just. This reformer in me was born and it seemed essential to go to Greece, like being called there. Compelled and resilient Athena resembled pivotal highlights from my life, although I didn't materialize from Zeus' forehead. The character of Benson could be compelled by similar forces.
Uneven tilts skewed my life and for the longest time, I took it because I had to. But, I got really sick and tired of always being the final person dealt or someone's doormat.
At that time, when I came to, I'd almost died and learned about seedy things that had caused my distress. They weren't my doing btw. I'd taken so much by that point and said, "I'm done!" My childhood and everything else encompassed enough crap to endure for more than one lifetime, but I never demanded anything from the blameworthy, I left it.
Then, it followed.
Six years ago, my patience for unlicensed depravity ran out. I was over it and there was no way I was going to pretend it didn't happen or leave it neatly like everything else. So, I asked for justice, unsure of if it would come.
Olivia Benson would get this.
Her face after a known pedophile gets off or her relief when a perp finally gets caught, summarizes what matters to her. She takes the hard, and sometimes, less traveled road and, so do I.
Oftentimes, smiling and saying nothing when evil taunts us, we hunker down fighting to right wrongs, tirelessly, until our last breaths.
Finally, Olivia adopted Noah, an orphaned infant, as a single female working for the NYPD and that's something I would do.
D.J. Tanner, "Full and Fuller House"
D.J. Tanner is the big sister of a house with one parent and several siblings. She grows up to have her own family, then sadly loses her firefighter husband, like she'd lost her biological mother as a child. But, she carries on happily.
If you subtract the super-intellectual Reid and tough lady Benson, you'd be left with D.J., who is like me in presentation and demeanor. She doesn't deal with the ugliness of life, up close and personal like Reid, Benson, and other relations, beneath this one. Many of these roles live knee deep in darkness, which is why D.J.'s life is somewhat farfetched. She is full of light, hope, and optimism, something that is important to fund when dealing with the unspeakable.
Most of all, she's nice... like only in tv land could someone be that nice and still have everything go so right.
Like D.J., I have a hard time choosing what to do in the romance department and there are men from my past who I would refer to as bozos.
D.J. is a quintessential sister, mother, professional and friend. She likes to have fun and can be completely dorky about things like Pillow People and the New Kids on the Block. My things would not be the same as hers, but I'd get as zany about meeting Sting or getting a classic Barbie Doll.
I'd also be found next to a Kimmy Gibler who I'd known my entire life while saying, "Oh Mylanta!"
Melinda Gordon, "The Ghost Whisperer"
Melinda Gordon is extra sensitive to things that other people are not. She's been made fun of for her differences and talents, losing friends who sided against her along the way. Maybe some didn't understand her, although, I feel that any real friend can properly support a difference in another, even when they don't personally experience it.
Melinda is loving, yet conflicted. She seeks to help others and dares to walk a line that no one else does which is an idea I can relate closely to. Her isolation, reflection, and self-guided discovery are one in the same to how I've made my way in existing.
In sixth-grade religion class, I was accused of cheating, by the teacher, when I wasn't. I knew the answers without my teacher's official instruction. When I met my new teacher, a well-regarded telepath, he had this exact experience as well, when he was a child.
Amazingly, Melinda stays true to her insight that she doesn't always fully grasp. She remains diligent, going so far as to marry her deceased husband who possesses another body. I don't find that crazy at all but more, magical and romantic.
If this were real life, most people would have lost their damn minds but, Melinda takes it on. For example, she resists sleep in order to help ghosts, when no one else is awake, not to mention no one else can see what she sees.
Listen to the above clip. If you've ever turned your back on anyone who refused to support what you knew but couldn't prove, you'll feel Melinda's pain.
Cher Horowitz,"Clueless"
Maybe it's the Calfornia lifestyle or it's the love of clothes, shopping, and Shakespeare, but being a popular girl who often assists those struggling with life sounds like me.
I was like Cher in high school, managing clubs, heading organizations and striving to make changes for the better good. Except people tended to think that California-sounding girls who looked good and sounded like Cher were stupid. Well, the Cher in me likes to prove them incorrect by showing a priority for style, while still being lighting bright.
If I had a dollar for every time I experienced an upset when my abilities were undervalued because of my looks or speech, I'd be loaded. I've also rolled off of furniture trying to look cool. And maybe, I've had a few hiccups while learning to drive.
Cher reminds me of a necessary example of not judging a book by it's expensively dressed and ditsy-sounding cover. She chooses to highlight fashion, design, shopping and looking put together.
My teacher has told me that I am the girliest person he knows and that doesn't bother me. He perceives my intelligence too and verbally points out that I may not always sound like it. (Remember the mind of Spencer is at work.) That also has to do with my personality type which is INFJ and it is true what they say about us: when we talk we sound jumbled but our written words, formulate like Pulitzer Prize-winning artistry.
Cher is no different than many women, except she pulls this off well and gains a following, power and respect in the process.
The moral is: just because someone sounds like Cher Horowitz and likes what Cher likes, doesn't make her flaky or an airhead. Behind that coifed and pampered exterior, Cher is really very intelligent, independent and altruistic, putting others before herself.
Rachel Jansen,"Forgetting Sarah Marshall"
In the movie, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," Rachel Jansen is this cool receptionist who works in Hawaii. Interestingly enough, she is aware of what's going on around her, like how Peter is heartbroken over Ms. Marshall coldly replacing him with Aldous Snow. So, she is sympathetic to him and, meanwhile, avoids, Sarah's nasty jealousy when directed at her.
She moved to Hawaii and stayed after a relationship faltered to which I completely assimilate.
I love this movie for a few reasons. Mostly, I love it because it's funny. However, I really enjoy how as Peter gets over or "forgets Sarah Marshall," he has flashbacks of how Sarah treated him with insignificance. I feel sympathy as I know the games women play.
When Rachel tells Peter "You don't have to dote on me. I'm not that kind of girl," I get a sense of comradery from never understanding how some women treat their men like children or even servants.
For instance, the mother of an ex of mine always treated her husband, and my ex's father, like an incompetent baby, even though she didn't work and he did all the earning. Flashing forward, I knew I'd never feel satisfied with that kind of marriage, which was one of the reasons I left.
My ex-didn't see a problem with this; he was actually really blind to how his mother could be. When questioned, I could see how he was living in a lie, unable to reckon with what was valid. He unquestioningly accepted this controlling and extremely domineering behavior that resulted in a major lack of appreciation and respect for her husband, and his father, like she was above being questioned or she would explode in hysterics. By all observation, she was an unstable disaster and because he couldn't separate from that and enabled the detriment, I withdrew from him. That wasn't how I was raised and didn't appear to be the way I ever envisioned treating the father of my kids.
In "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," Peter flashes back to moments, on the red carpet, when Sarah was always making him hold her bag or making him stand outside of photos ops. It was so rude and as if she was only using him, but then again, some guys are pathetic. I'd never do that to a guy and I don't want to date one who is comfortable with that. Men should be protectors and stronger, as Peter eventually identifies.
Although I believe in equality, I don't like when women date guys just so someone will be there to hold their designer bags.
I get Rachel's position. I've had to stand up to spiteful ex-girlfriends, and mothers of an ex, like Rachel, did in this. An example is when they are all eating together and Rachel responds, "I like living here," after Sarah states, "I think Hawaii is for those people who can't handle reality."
In the video, above, sneakily arranging for Peter to play his music and surprising him in the way she does, is most definitely something that I would do.
Elle Woods, "Legally Blonde"
Elle Woods is similar to Cher Horowitz, except she takes a braver risk by leaving California and heading into Harvard Law. Cher stayed in California and so the story goes. If the same could be said for Elle, there'd be no point in mentioning both.
The difference is that Elle Woods is a greater pioneer, who takes bolder risks and chances. She balances many different responsibilizes like Cher Horowitz does, but unlike Cher, faces severe criticism and estrangement from others who are initially unwelcoming and unfriendly to her presence.
I can relate to this as my life resembles a similar interchange like when I moved to New England. People weren't ever overly welcoming here and I've had some serious circumstances happen since relocating. Overall, I felt unsupported and ignored throughout them with few exceptions. And though it's a little bit better, I've stayed, in spite of that, oftentimes wondering why there is such a severe uphill climb in this area. Elle faced a similar opposition in going to Harvard.
Eventually, she blows everyone away with the support of a few helpers. I have a posse in my corner, who if it weren't for them, I'd have left long ago. But, I've stayed because they encourage me, even when things suck.
They are my cheerleaders. Like Elle, I've hung in and understood how unhappy life can be when it seems like most I encounter are rooting for me to fail.
Jeanette Walls,"The Glass Castle"
When I first read "The Glass Castle" ten years ago, I immediately connected to Jeanette Walls, who wrote it.
She's the second daughter of four, so am I. We're both from the South and have grown up with a neglectful and dysfunctional family life where we felt survival depended on liberation. For as long as I had a biological family, I've always been looking for a way to depart from them sadly and sorry to know that likely would be the only conclusion. I know this because had someone offered me a way out, even when I was little, I'd have taken it. It would have broken my heart, but I would have made that choice.
My life was always pretended until it could get better. Like Walls, I felt like I had to say things that weren't true about my personal life like how great my relatives
Jeanette decided not to stay in a relationship with her significant other, instead choosing to stay true to herself. I've been there before, sometimes having an uncanny ability to comprehend that the person I was with, wasn't the right one for me and that their placement in my life, was much like that of my abusive family who I've spent a lifetime trying to outrun. I had patience and awareness that I'd inevitably make some selection mistakes because of my family history. My mind stayed focused on crawling over craters and fighting for a peaceful link. I chose to believe that someday, someone out there would treat me the way that I deserved to be treated and that my love life would not forever be based on those who mimicked my relatives.
Jeanette also, most importantly, is a writer. I get how she ended up injured and how her unconventional way of life did not prepare her for the actual world that she would filter into. Most of all, I've known since I was 20 that I would write a book about my life someday.
Perhaps, I'll do what Jeanette Walls did for me by inspiring someone else who will read my work or hear about my life and discover an Astro-connection in the process.
