The song "If Your Girl Only Knew" was stuck in my head last night, and I'm not sure why. I heard none of her songs on the radio lately, her movies have not been on my tv, and I've not heard anyone mentioning her name. I suppose some things pop in your head with no valid explanation. As the song repeated the first line of the first verse then skipped to the chorus, I began to think back to 2001, the year Aaliyah was killed in a plane crash along with eight other passengers.
I thought back to One In A Million, one of the first CDs I've ever owned. The song "4 Page Letter" was one of my favorites from 1996, and the video just confused the dickens out of me.
My mind also went back to Romeo Must Die, a movie I actually didn't care for that much then. In any case, Aaliyah had accomplished so much in her short career, with three albums, one platinum, the other two double platinum, scores of musical nominations and wins. When she died, she was just 22.
When I was 22, I was still in college not knowing a thing of what I wanted when (or if) I graduated. I had a job that I hated, yet had no real reason too, my boyfriend and I did nothing and went nowhere, and of course, I was still living at home. I certainly didn't travel the world gracing audiences with my melodic voice, or entertaining them with my natural acting talent. Though there is a two year diffrence, I questioned myself, "If I died today, what would I have had accomplished?"
I don't view motherhood as an accomplishment. It sounds as though there was no pure emotion when speaking of motherhood is something to accomplish. Like it was a job. I view it as a blessing, a gift like no other. It's indescribable, but I would not call it an accomplishment. Looking outside of myself answering this question, I would say that I had achieved my degree in Paralegal....and that's it. I honestly can not come up with any other achievements. I suppose I could stretch it by adding earning my driver's license as an achievement. Jealously is not a factor when mentioning Aaliyah. I know I can't sing or act, so there's no use of becoming envious. It just makes me feel a little low when I see perfomers, much younger than Aaliyah gain so much star power and achieving so much in such a short amount of time. Miley, Nick, Joe, Kevin, Selena, Demi, Victoria, Miranda (iCarly), and dear lord, Justin. There's not a day that goes by I don't hear their name or see their show on when channel surfing. These annoying mega stars, amongst tweens and creepy guys living in their mother's basement, can and should retire right now and live comfortably for the rest of their lives. Nevertheless, what these, and other current tween/teen idols, have already done are accomplishments.
As I stated before, jealous is not a factor. However some of these teen sensations should not be making the amount of money they are making, if it were solely based on their talent. I see this as an eye opener, however. If, at whatever age I should die, I want to accomplish something, anything, I should do something about it. Why wait for the opportunity to knock? I should be the one knocking. It doesn't have to be singing, or acting, it can be something simple such as visiting the elderly in a retirement home. I don't even need a family member to be one of the residents. Or I could raise money for a charity that I never heard of. In fact, now that I think of it, my blogs are an accomplishment. Audience or no audience, I'm doing something that I love. It's not giving back to the community, or making millions of dollars from knowing how to operate a auto-tuner, but it's for me. For my self esteem.
I have accomplished something.
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