people are sheep
...as bouncing around the store acting like he was Kobe Bryant. I asked him if he liked the way the shoes looked, or even if they were at least comfortable, and his reply was, "who cares? Kobe Bryant wears them so they're awesome!" I gave the shoes a closer inspection, because if they were good enough for Kobe Bryant, they were good enough for my little brother. At least in my little brothers mind. When I peered at the price tag my knees got weak, and I nearly fell over. I asked him how he planned to pay for the shoes, and he gave me the short version of the guilt trip he had laid on our divorced parents. Not only did he guilt enough money out of Mom for the shoes, he blind-sided Dad with a sneaky appeal for basketball accessories. Needless to say I was absolutely flabbergasted, yet, at the same time, very impressed. The more I thought about it, the more I realized, that at the age of thirteen, my little brother had already been sucked into the media herd, and would probably stay there. I told Kobe, (a.k.a. my little brother), I had some other shopping to do, and I promptly left the scene of shoe-shopping fiasco. My niece was having her sixth birthday in a week, so I decided to go shop for her. As I headed for the toy store, I pulled out the list she had given me. Downhill skier Barbie, firefighter Barbie (because her favorite uncle was going to be a firefighter), and/or, Doctor Barbie. Under no circumstance was I to get her scuba Barbie, astronaut Barbie, or just plain regular Barbie because she already had those. If I couldn't find any of those then she would be all right with a Barbie jacket or blanket. At least she took the guesswork out of the process. It was absolutely amazing, six years old, and already a direct part of the herd. As I thought about it, it made sense. My sister had told me many times when she duped me into babysitting, that if the kids got too wild, just put in a video, Barbie for my nieces and Bob the Builder for my nephew. My niece has all the Barbie videos, so it should have been no surprise to me that she would want all the Barbie dolls. My sister used the videos to rope my nieces and nephew back whenever they started to stray too far from the rest of the herd. By this time I had taken a seat on a bench in the middle of the mall. I thought to myself that everyone in my family was consumed by what the media told them. I thought briefly that they were all pathetic. Then I realized I would be high and mighty to try and convince myself that I wasn't affected in some shape or form by the media. Since I was young I have been infatuated with military history, I can watch war movies and the History Channel all day long and never get tired of it. The one thing I wanted more than anything growing up was to be a soldier. I wanted to jump out of airplanes, ride in tanks, shoot guns, and blow things up. That's why, when I was old enough, I ran full speed to the recruiter and enlisted in the Army. I lived my dream as an airborne infantry soldier for over three years. Like most dreams, it wasn't as great as I had hoped. There was much more to being a soldier than what the media shepherd had led me to believe. Along with being infatuated by being a soldier, I have also been mesmerized by firefighters. As a kid I remember running after the fire trucks every time I heard the distinct...