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Karnes County's community newspaper

(published on August 29, 2007)

Wantabe

Folks, a while back I went for a check up from my dermatologist Dr. Calvin Day. While there I added a new word to my vocabulary. It is "wantabe." My computer does not like my new word and is constantly trying to get me to use something else. Never the less I continue to use it because I can apply it to people and various situations.

Dr. Day used it to explain some of the bumps on my punkin head. He informed me that I was cancer free but some of the bumps on my noggin were wantabes. That is the name he has given to those bumps that will develop into cancer if left untreated. So he zapped those wantabes and ended their ambitions.

Since then I have thought about the difference between a "want to be" and the wantabes in a different perspective. Perhaps, just perhaps, this is what has happened to some of our great athletes. Ever since they were youngsters they have wanted to be great athletes. Now there is nothing wrong with that! In fact I have great admiration for anyone who wants to become a great athlete, doctor, lawyer, nurse, politician, business man or whatever and work hard to be the best they can be.

The problem arises, as I see it, when they change from wanting to be great into a wantabe. There is a huge difference between a want to be and a wantabe! Wantabes become willing to cheat, lie and accept bribes so they can rise in power and on and on in order to reach their goal.

Now folks, this does not only apply to the athletes and people in high places. It applies to the rest of us as we strive to achieve our desirable goals. These goals may still be lofty but the method of getting there may have turned cancerous and slowly eating the life out of us. We not only need to check ourselves but we may need to seek professional advice and get their help in ascertaining if our desires to achieve our goals are healthy or perhaps turning us into wantabes that will eventually make our lives miserable if not removed!

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