The role model you didn’t know you were

It’s often hard for us to remember just how much we matter.

We may think that no one notices, that no one really cares—we may think that our day-to-day tasks matter to ourselves and ourselves alone.

We may think that we aren’t setting an example, and if we do, we may think it’s not a good one. We may think no one really looks to us for guidance, we may think we’re the farthest thing from anyone’s role model.

We may be wrong.

I was recently humbled enough to be shown and bluntly told that I matter to someone. That someone has looked to me throughout the duration of their life.

Someone has looked to me for a different way of thinking, someone has thought of me as their greatest teacher.

I was recently told this, and I was recently almost brought to tears (don’t worry still not crying like a normal person).

Why didn’t I know?

I was too wrapped up in trying to be like my idols and role models. So wrapped up, that I failed to see who was looking up to me.

It is important to look to others for inspiration, but it is also important to remember that others look to you for the very same thing.

Whether it’s a friend, sibling, acquaintance, co-worker, peer—we all have a chance to be someone’s example, someone’s go-to for guidance. We all could be someone’s role model, even if we don’t know it.

As we go through the motions, we may think things insignificant. What we don’t realize, is that to someone, everything we do is the most significant of all. We are their silent idol, their sense of hope, goals and future dreams.

So as we go through our days, let us remember that someone looks up to us. That we are doing the best that we can, and that we are showing them how to be their best selves, simply by being ours.