Pete and Pete was a childhood staple. What better show for a kid to watch than one that featured two brothers named Pete, a villain named Paper Cut and a superhero BFF named Artie. Oh, the superhero? He’s also the strongest man in the world, in case you didn’t know. Like the Muppet Show, it featured special guests like Iggy Pop, Steve Buscemi and Michael Stipe. Suddenly I understand why my older brother would actually watch it with me. Although to this day I don’t know why he didn’t like Saved by the Bell. I mean he was in high school at the time the show aired. Why he didn’t think he was able to relate was beyond me.
So what can Artie teach me? I mean, I have the Coreys for perseverance, Zack Morris for ingenuity and Natty Gann for staying positive. It would seem to be the trifecta for awesome lessons learned, but I like to push the limits. There are more lessons left for me in this life.
Smart, self-confident and a little eccentric, Artie — besides being the strongest man in the world — remained true to himself. Unlike my lessons learned from Zack Morris, Artie was more about helping others than putting himself first. He remained true to himself and his superhero powers. He was out for good. Of course Artie had moments of weakness where he doubted himself. He did once give up on being a superhero, but like any true calling in life he returned, superhero and all, and rediscovered himself.
What Artie taught me is that I need to remain true to myself. It’s too easy to cast aside our true self in times of adversity. Hey kids, it’s easy to cast aside ourselves in any situation. But why? Why do we put ourselves down? It’s something I do to myself and have no one else to point that finger at but me. Not only is it detrimental to my self-image but it doesn’t help me progress professionally either. Part of being confident is knowing who I am. Lucky for me, I had three months to spend learning that. So, here’s to my eccentricities (television and music obsessions and all), my skills andmy tools, and also includes my faults — I gotta appreciate and remain true to those. It’s the only way I’ll get past them. Here’s to another step closer to being trademark good-at-life.
