Which Celebrity Would You Be, and Why?

Categorizing the Answers

"If you could change places with any celebrity in the world for one day, who would you choose, and why?" A lot of us have played this game of imagination at some point in our lives, but I was most surprised and impressed with my son's answer to that question in response to a writing prompt at school. He sees things differently than I do, and differently than most people I know.

Some people would choose a great athlete as their celebrity, maybe Tom Brady on the day of the Superbowl, Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, or some other famous sports figure achieving some historic milestone. I put these in the quest for glory category. Being able to perform on stage, as the lead singer of a famous rock band, fits into this category as well.

I've heard those people who would choose an intellectual celebrity; maybe Einstein, or Sir Isaac Newton when they came up with a particularly brilliant theory. They might say the first guy to discover fire, the wheel, bubble gum, or what have you. These are the people who want to feel like they've had some purpose and helped to further the cause of civilization, and made their own mark on history.

There are those who would seek enlightenment. These choose some famous religious figure, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, and so forth. They would choose a historical celebrity who they think understood The Meaning of Life, as if there really were such a thing. People who would choose Oprah Winfrey might be in this category too, but you can't say for sure until you hear the why part of the question: "She's just such a good person," for example.

There are the pivotal moment altruists, who want to change the world. They tend to choose some historical figure that caused something terrible to happen in order to prevent it. These folks might say something like: I'd be Hitler, so I could make sure The Holocaust never happened, or John Wilkes Booth on the day Lincoln was shot, so he wouldn't have been assassinated.