7 Things to Look for in A Role Model

Hi there, my wonderful readers!

Hope you are all doing well! It has been a little while since my last post, been trying to decide how to write this one. Well, here goes nothing…

Have you ever been in a tough situation? Stupid question, I know, because who in the world hasn’t been in a tough situation? I mean hello, we’re human… even more, us adult folks do tend to find ourselves in a pickle or two on occasion. Okay, getting to the point now, being in a stressful spot, having to make a hard decision, it’s all par for the course. When we’re really at the end of our ropes, we sometimes look to / for someone to help guide us… someone we respect and look up to, a mentor, a role model, if you will.

Who do you look to? Do you have a particular person, or a type of person you admire? Is it someone you know, a celebrity you respect, or maybe even a character from a TV show? How do you pick this person? Well, this is what I’m here to talk about today. Role models. 

I’m gonna start by talking a bit about what brought this post on. This stuff is really hard for me to talk about and I’ve never really mentioned it before. For obvious reasons, I am going to leave out names and specifics. Having someone in your life, who hasn’t exactly treated you well, can be really hard. The put downs, the negative comments, the criticisms, all of these awful things can be extremely difficult to deal with, no matter who you are or who this person is. No matter how many people tell you that you don’t deserve it, or how wrong this person is, it just won’t get through to you. You can’t help but believe these criticisms and take them to heart. This is a tough place to be, my friends, and I won’t lie to you… it’s something I’ve been dealing with for a while.

So many different things and so many different people have helped me with this over the years, and now I have a whole new source of help. A new role model. Have any of you ever watched the show Wentworth? Well, this is an Australian show about a women’s prison and it is, well in a word, amazing. One of the main characters is Franky Doyle, played by the super talented actress Nicole Da Silva. This new role model has given me the strength to say: “no more”. I would love for her to somehow stumble upon this post and find out just how much she’s helped me. I swear, I’m not a creeper.

Known as top dog of the prison for quite a while, Franky is an amazingly complex and admired character. Okay okay, I’ll be honest here,  she’s one of the “badasses” of the show… guess I might have a thing for the “bad girl” (hehe). Anyways, here is why I think she’s awesome…

7 (or maybe 8) Reasons Franky Doyle is My New Role Model

F earless – It seems like nothing can scare this girl.

Couldn’t help but add another ‘F word’ here… funny.  Franky is super playful and quirky.

R eassuringly brave – Okay, so I may have taken a few creative liberties with this one, but I shall try to explain. Being brave, courageous is a great thing. It’s a thing a lot of people have in a lot of different ways. The difference for me with Franky, is that she is all those things but in a way that feels reassuring and comforting to those around her. In her own way,  she’s like a “mother hen”. Maybe that’s just how I feel, who knows.  

A ngry – Angry and hopeful are often the words used to describe her. Franky had a hell of a childhood and is angry about all of it,  but then there’s that hope in her,  a hope that one day things will be different, possibly outside those prison walls.  

N ice – This is definitely a characteristic she wouldn’t always openly admit to, lest it ruin her reputation as the “tough one”. Deep down, Franky is one of the most kind and empathetic people  there is. She has a lot of love to give. Mostly on her own terms, but it’s there. 

K nowledgeable – She is smart! Franky is even learning to be a lawyer. So, yes she’s book smart, but also smart in so many other ways. If “W” was a letter here, I would have to also use the word “witty”. Her “funny” and her “knowledgeable” often go hand in hand to make her the cool and quirky character that she is. 

Y earning for love – Another thing she may not want to admit, is that on the inside, Franky is that little girl whose parents didn’t love her and she would give anything to feel loved and accepted now as an adult. 

D irect – She may not be straight in some ways, if ya catch my drift, (about half of you are going “ah, there it is!” under your breath right about now), but she is most definitely a straight-shooter when it comes to communicating. Don’t ever expect Franky to sugar-coat anything. She says what she thinks, sometimes without thinking it through all that much.

There it is, guys, the seven… okay, more like eight… reasons Franky Doyle is someone I find role model worthy. Her strength and self confidence always makes me happy and reminds me that I could be like that too (minus the violent parts, of course). I have a picture of her tattoo as my cell phone wallpaper for just this reason… again, I swear I’m not a creeper

Who are your role models?

Thanks for reading, guys! This post was hard for me to share, so your reading it means a lot.