Anonymous Fame

There is something wonderful about being anonymously famous – a sense of pride and self-importance that is created by the knowledge that you could be recognizable, even if you’re not. People are anonymously famous all the time: they have a picture posted on a website without a caption, they are mentioned in an article in the local county paper that no one will ever read, or they are honored at an awards ceremony that no one attends. All these things say, “Hey, you’re amazing. You’re a star. Look at you!” You instantly feel a boost and start to think a lot of yourself, even knowing that you’re not famous by any real standards. You know that the page mentioning or picturing you is out there to the masses (even if they are a very small mass) and that is enough. You are now famous, at least to yourself.

I have recently become a victim of just such anonymous fame in two ways.

First, my law school gave me a certificate for participating in a moot court competition. Last semester I joined one of the two National Appellate Moot Court teams for Lewis & Clark Law School. We went to the Regional competition in November, which my team won and then went to the National competition in January.* Really, we were amazing. But we were not the only moot court team at the school. It turns out there are somewhere around 10 different moot competitions of one kind or another (moot court, mock trial, moot negotiations, moot legislative writing, etc.) at Lewis & Clark and following the conclusion of them all the school holds a small reception for all participants. Yesterday was the reception. Each student who participated in one of these events was given a certificate, which serves no real purpose beyond stating that the student was a participant and team member. (Actually, you didn’t even have to be a team member. People who just facilitated these events got certificates too. Yup. All those people who simply scheduled rooms for us to use or acted as a bailiff were “honored” for their “participation” as well.) Now, I knew going into this event that it was fairly pointless and the only real reason I attended was because I wanted a little recognition of my teams’ achievement, which had been sorely lacking even though we were amazing (can you tell I’m still bitter?), but for some reason, when I was handed that certificate, a truly meaningless piece of paper, and looked out at the crowd (the crowd of other moot courters and a few faculty members who showed up for the free beer and wine, basically 35 people) I felt an enormous sense of pride. I was famous. I was a hero at Lewis & Clark. I was a goddess. Yes, I’m not ashamed to say that I went stark, raving mad. I had become anonymously famous. To my own mind I had suddenly grown to mythic proportions even knowing that no one outside of that room had heard of my accomplishments and that the people in the room really didn’t care.

The second instance of anonymous fame came just this morning in the form of an e-mail from my dear brother, Scott. Evidently, I am being featured in a magazine produced in Baja, Mexico – and by featured I mean there is a picture of me on one of the pages without a caption or any other indication of who the fisherwoman in the Tilly is.** But who cares?! I’m famous!!! Everyone can see my picture...in this one magazine…only available in Mexico…only produced in Baja… only if you can find it…and once you flip to page 31. Ok, maybe I’m anonymously famous. But regardless, I feel good about myself now and I feel like a super star. (Now even more so since I’ve shared my glory with all of you.)

So give it a try sometime. Become anonymously famous. I have no doubt that true fame would be a pain in the butt and not worth the hassle, but anonymous fame is something else altogether – all of the glory with none of the drawbacks. If you’re ever feeling down or just a little bit blue, become anonymously famous because anonymous fame is a beautiful thing.

*My silence on winning or losing the National Competition basically tells you the outcome.

**Click here: http://issuu.com/paradisemags/docs/paradise_magazine_5?mode=window&pageNumber=1 and go to page 31