Over the last decade of my life, many fantastic and wonderful people have surrounded me. I have made friends from Colorado, to Manchester, England, and then to Catalina. My life has been amazing, and I could never regret anything that I have done. I have been taught so much by so many people.

When I was a little boy, in the third grade, we had to do a report on a role model. I did a report on John F Kennedy, (thanks Mom and Dad for starting my political life with this project). The theme of the project was to get the idea of looking up to people in history and understand why we should look up to them. Maybe they could make us a better person. That’s why when people ask, “Who do you look up to?” you automatically assume it’s either someone from history, or the regular response of Mom and/or Dad. Now, I’m not saying that your Mom and/or Dad should not be someone you look up to, hell, I look up my mother and father very day. If it weren’t for them, I would not be the person I am.

I have always had an issue with the question of who you look up to. It’s almost always implied that the person that you look up to is older than you. And I also feel like that you are not allowed to have too many people that you look up to. Which is where I feel conflicted.

I look up to everyone that is in my life.

I look up to everyone in different ways. Without naming names, I look up to one friend who somehow balances school and sports together, I look up to another who moved 2000 miles away to go to college, I look up to another who is one of the best RA’s on campus. I look up to one who taught me that if you try, you could achieve anything.  These are only a few people out of the thousands that I look up to.

The funny thing about me looking up to people is that I look up to people that I barely even know. I see what they do on Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr and I look up to them for it. “I want to be like them”, I always think. I don’t want to be exactly like them, but I want to take something that they do, to make myself a better person.

So, for those of you those are reading this, thank you. You don’t know it, but I have looked up to you. You have helped me make me a better person and I thank you.