Like the Cool Kid

How do you tell someone, without sounding like a sentimental dweeb, that you admire them?

I mean do you? It may be falling into the category of remarks one should just keep to themselves however tempting it may feel to let that person know, such as:

Oh my god, you really look like that guy from that movie/my dream last night! [Proceed with explicit but oddly detail-elusive narration of said piece of fiction].

Or

Gosh I can absolutely see your nipples through that shirt. Looks good...

Or even

Shit, I just imagined pushing you into the traffic just now – so random, haha!

Because what would they respond with? “Get the fuck away, you creep, I’m calling the police”, if they’ve just spotted you glaring through the hedges after months of successful stalking from their back yard. But even if you’re the closest of bosom buddies, is that a thing you just wrench out over a pint? Literally talking into your glass, and avoiding eye contact. Then pretend it was the alcohol making you sappily swear true bro-love and appreciation, and follow it up with a fading nod in awkward silence. “Mm… yeah. Right.” 

There is then a chance of making them forever weary of suddenly waking up sensing a presence in the room, where just before hastily reaching the light switch they would see your glimmering admiring eyes on a dark silhouette by the end of their bed, Twilight style, (not creepy at all, Edward).

Okay okay, so if saying it is potentially too risky for your mutually maintained respectful distance and aloofness, perhaps showing it would let it out of your system? Surely anyone would be flattered to realise they had influenced a fellow human being to follow in their footsteps, and take advice, and try to apply themselves by imitating the person they admire.

You can, potentially, also be seen as a spineless leech essentially stealing decisions that person’s made. Much like the creative folk indulging in copious audio recordings which for a long time had only been accessible via a round flat sheet of a type of plastic being dragged through with a fucking needle, making faux-nostalgic “retro” music all over again. People who admire something too much, tend to not be able to steer away from said type and style of material that they revere so. Ergo hipsters these days make a lot of shit that sounds like some nursery rhyme from Summer 1982. 

Like the khool khiiids!

So no, you don’t just turn up in the same shirt and shoes and haircut as the person, and grin widely while “creating rapport” by “mirroring” every pose and gesture the poor sod emanates. 

Although who the fuck am I to tell you what’s okay and what’s gut-wrenchingly creepy. Also, what if you feel deep-seated admiration for something like an elephant, gracefully marching through Earth urban and wild like a truly wise king of all living. Or maybe you can’t pass the possibly last opportunity like in that scene in The Great Gatsby, to tell your hamster Rodger how much he’s made you who you are by showing he will fucking chew through his cage to get the hell out to freedom, and then maybe make you reconsider your own role in this whole ordeal even if for a few blinding moments of realisation. 

Go for it.

Na, but for real, of course the person should know, right? They should know why too, and what impact they did have on your beautifully exteriorly decorated brain, and what decisions that brain has decided to do since. What other meaning are most people striving for in life, than to leave a mark and make a difference, to connect in a fundamental and meaningful way with other human beings? It sounds worth letting them know how much they impacted your having gotten where you are now, and how important they are in inspiring you to strive to be who you’d love to be in the future. Tell them.

I won’t. Because it’s stupid, and you’re stupid.

But you go ahead.