We all have people in our lives who take your breath away, people whom you put on a pedestal sometimes without knowing anything about them; it’s why, if lucky enough, we freeze and get starstruck when we meet them in person.
It’s why celebrities always seem shorter in person.
We imagine the people we look up to, to be so much grander than us, and thus mistake them as taller. One of those people for me is Josh Groban. In a recent Chicago concert, seats so close I could identify the band’s cologne, I felt mesmerized with not just the music and performance but was in awe of how another mortal could come to affect so many fans.
Josh (no, we are not on a first name basis) is almost human on stage. He’s funny, talks about his life, energizes and engages the audience, and with a decade of listening to his voice on replay, there was a sense of knowing him. But as I allowed myself to imagine him as a person, as a human, and not as a celebrity, a gnawing question presented itself: how did he get there?
What did it take? Did the stars align for him, or was he tireless in his efforts?
How many others are as talented as him but go unnoticed? How many are there with less talent but more fame? What does it take for a single human being, brought into the world like the rest of us, to command a big stage like that? Can any one of us get there?
As I was leaving the venue late at night, I attempted to connect my curiosity to the world within which I live–our beloved dental world. And in doing so, I began to wonder, who in our profession commands that great stage? Why and how did they get there? And curiously, did they deserve the attention?
