Overrated

I remember when I first heard the word overrated and actually got the concept of something being "overrated". Oh, how I loved that concept. I could liberally label anything or anyone as overrated and felt better about having categorically defined things.

This elated discovery stuck with me for only a short time when I equated it to the fable of "The Fox and the Grapes". Often times, I was labeling something as overrated because I couldn't attain it, but really wanted it. So, if I gave it a "well, I never really wanted that anyway", then I'd feel better and move on.

Or, would I?

Is being wealthy overrated? Is being beautiful overrated? Is being at the top of your job field overrated? Is being married overrated? Is being famous overrated? Is being a parent overrated? Is having a great family overrated? Is having a recollection of a great childhood overrated?

I might say that being wealthy/famous, for instance, after watching a few episodes of "E! True Hollywood Story" is overrated. However, how would I know something was "overrated" if I hadn't ever really walked that walk? If I watch an episode of "Cribs", I think that 30 minutes in that lifestyle would be so NOT overrated, however, 30 minutes is about all I can take before I've seen all I wanted to see. I have no desire after seeing their lavish lifestyle to "miss" the person. So, would that mean I could lop "fancy house, fancy cars" into my "overrated" slot? Not, if I truly believe you have to walk the walk before categorizing it.

Therefore, I learned that my newfound attachment to the stamping of "overrated" was not overrated, but rather underrated. You have to have some significant experience with something in order to label it overrated and quite frankly, I hadn't any significant experience with being rich or famous.

I could say, with certainty, that a Light Bright, an Etch-A-Sketch, and college life were overrated. The benefits of college, of course, were not overrated. You strive for college life as high schooler to be able to live as an adult while someone else foots the bill. Now, for many people this is how it works and the only thing "overrated" about it is the morning after some of their wild charades. (Yes, that statement was from the mouth of an assuming prude, right?)

However, college life for me was 100% overrated. I did not live on campus. I was an education major which had zero value to some of my family that thought you should make six figures your first year out of college. I worked two jobs. I was so tired half the time, I wasn't sure when I answered the phone at my job if I was at job A or job B. I NEVER had money. I actually had a tab at a local diner in Red Bank so that I could eat between my jobs.

So, college life for me was overrated. I can say that with all the experience in the world. Could I tell that to someone else? No, it wouldn't be fair. They may have a different experience and who would I be to detour them from that opportunity. In addition, the education you get drastically changes your path, for some people. See, I am even eluding to the fact that the college education itself, for some because of their lives, could be overrated. It might even be a financial burden they wouldn't have otherwise acquired. It's all in the person's experience.

Furthermore, a Light Bright and an Etch-A-Sketch, for example, were unequivocally overrated, to me. Who can remember their first encounter with "overrated". I can, possibly because I've drawn on this connection because of my fascination with the concept of "overratedness". At seven or eight, I had wanted them, saved up for them, gotten them and found the level at which they were enjoyable to me to be less than exciting or even unfulfilling. Those two "showy" toys were overrated. The child on TV.... looking like they were having hours of fun with a newfound talent..... (albeit the talent was absolutely in a zero demand with no future of helping them with anything) was such a magnetic pull that when I got the box with many black sheets of guide dot paper, oodles of pegs and a plug in peg board, it stunk to high heaven that I couldn't make use of it---at all. I could go on and on about being able to do nothing with an Etch-A-Sketch, maybe a primitive house drawing or, if you had an easy name, that could appear, but really, it could go with my Rubics Cube and other 'funless' toys. Suddenly, the commericals didn't even come on anymore and I couldn't even remember why I wanted those things. So, I discovered the experience of the word overrated before I ever knew I couldn't just make flippant use of it.

So, I'd definitely say that being a grown up is overrated. It comes with a certain degree of freedom, yes, but so much more that could be sailed like a Plinko chip from Price Is Right into the "overrated" column.

Might it be that we, as grown ups, bring problems on ourselves, therefore making what we don't have the grapes high in the tree? Do we spend too much time focusing on what we "don't" want or "can't have".

So, overratedness....it's really just all those things we spend time loathing because some part of us really wanted to attain it, master it or be the one to 'trade up' from it..........just a thought.