Reevaluating Proverb: Can You Really Be Anything?

A personal reflection on dreams, identity, and learning that success doesn’t look the same for everyone

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Share a proverb you think is completely wrong and make your case.

“You can be anything you want to be.”

This is one of those sayings that sounds inspiring… but the older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve struggled to believe it.

I heard it everywhere growing up. Family. School. Movies. Disney especially — Pinocchio, When You Wish Upon a Star — this idea that if you wish hard enough and believe in yourself, anything is possible.

And I really believed that for a long time.

The message was simple: work hard, stay positive, and you can become anything.

But life isn’t that simple.

We all have different circumstances, different challenges, different support systems, and things going on that people can’t always see. And sometimes, even when you try your hardest, things don’t go the way you thought they would.

Growing up, one of my biggest dreams was becoming famous.

Living near Hollywood, it felt like that world was always in the background — glamour, success, being seen, being “somebody.” In my mind, that was the life.

But the reality was… I was painfully shy.

The idea of being in front of a camera or an audience didn’t feel exciting — it felt terrifying. Even being the center of attention in everyday life felt like too much.

So there was always this disconnect between the life I thought I wanted and the person I actually was.

And over time, that dream started to fade.

Not because I stopped wanting something more, but because I couldn’t see how I was supposed to become someone who fit that version of life.

What I didn’t realize back then was that I was simply different.

For too long, I tried to force myself into spaces that didn’t suit me. Masking. Mimicking. Studying other people so I could blend in. I thought that’s what I had to do to be “normal.”

I truly thought something was wrong with me.

It wasn’t until later in life that I learned I’m neurodivergent.

It kind of changed the trajectory of my life. Everything made so much more sense — the overwhelm, the burnout, the way things that looked simple for others felt heavy for me.

What I used to call flaws were just differences I didn’t understand yet.

And one of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn is this: success doesn’t look the same for everyone.

There were so many moments I looked around and felt behind. Like everyone else was moving forward while I was struggling just to keep up. I couldn’t understand why it all felt so much harder for me.

But I was measuring my life against someone else’s path.

And that’s a game you never win.

These days, I don’t believe we can be anything we want to be.

But I do believe we can become more than we imagine.

Life doesn’t always move in a straight line. Sometimes it reroutes us. Sometimes it strips away the versions of ourselves we were trying to force. And sometimes what we thought were limitations turn out to be the things that finally help us understand ourselves.

Maybe the proverb isn’t entirely wrong. But it’s incomplete. A more honest version might be this:

“You may not become everything you want to be, but you can become who you are meant to be.”

And for me, that changes everything. Because life isn’t about becoming everything. It’s about becoming yourself.

What if I didn’t have to become everything I thought I should be — what would my life look like then?

“We are not meant to become everything, but to become ourselves.” — Unknown