WHO ARE YOUR ROLE MODELS AND WHAT QUALITIES DO YOU SHARE WITH THEM?

I'm not sure I ever really had a 'role model' as such.

I've admired certain celebrities for their talent, for their glamorous looks and style, for their apparent 'dream lives' but as I grew up I realised that nobody has the perfect life; it doesn't exist.

I honestly couldn't pluck someone out of the air and say 'I want to 100% be this person.' 

I have actors/actresses who portray characters I love and therefore have my thanks, I have authors who have inspired my writing and given me a place to escape to, I have models who I admire for their dedication to keeping their bodies at less than 12% fat or whatever when I can barely control my diet for 24 hours. I also admire certain family members for their hard work and the relative success/comfort it has brought them. 

Whilst I'm not always certain exactly who I am, I do know that I've never met someone I've not found one flaw in; one reason that I wouldn't want to trade with them. Perhaps the very reason I have never had a role model is because I've never known myself well enough to relate fully to anyone.

But as I feel I'm failing to answer the question, I will leave you with this; my 'role models' are those who've woken up any given morning and cried because they woke. The people who go to bed exhausted and awake after a good night's sleep even more tired because their brain has been in overdrive. The lonely, the lost, the not-quite-broken-but-definitely-slightly-cracked, the people who have faced down the very edge of life and are still here to tell the tale. Those of you who hold devastating tsunamis of trauma and hurt inside and yet still find a way to be gentle and loving to others. The anxious, the depressed, the manic, and the in-between. The ones searching for a reason in the madness. The warriors fighting against injustice and doing everything possible to make the world a better place for future generations. You all inspire me and at some point, maybe at every point; you are me.