Copy Cat, Copy Cat..
By tessah
@tessah (6617)
United States
May 21, 2008 11:54am CST
admittedly.. we all pick up bits of our style from other places. we take a peice from here and peice there, compile them together, vary as we see fit.. and invent ourselves. our signature mark so to speak. what makes us.. us.
while i do gaff bits and peices of things i find appealing from other sources.. i consider myself a rather unique individual. i like being different from the crowd.. i like standing out. have my own way of speaking.. my own slang.. my own "personality". and it annoys me to no end.. when people try to BE me. my husband had this girlfriend once.. who in order to try to infiltrate past her lines of an Xtra into the position of Alpha.. started adopting everything there was to me.. trying to quite literally.. assimilate in borg like fashion. it isnt the first time.. im sure it wont be the last.. im cool like that .;snorts;. but it does piss me off, when people cant seem to get their own self.. so they mimic another.. thinking itll make them more like them thus gaining something that person has, that they want.
so which are you..? are you the copier, or the copied? and if you ARE the copier.. why? why is it so difficult to figure out who you are and simply be that.. so you choose to try to be someone else?
1 person likes this
7 responses
@sparkofinsanity (20471)
• Regina, Saskatchewan
22 May 08
I am most definitely NOT a gaffer. I do the gaffing. Don't laugh - I just let you think you're the one gaffing me! LOL
I consider myself unique to. I've been told I'm so all my life - and it wasn't a compliment. It took a lot of years to embrace that about myself and make it work for me.
But I have to laugh at my first hubs now wife. She was so desparate to get him into her bed and out of my life that she dyed her hair like mine, pretended to be Irish like me, told the same sob stories of her youth as he had told her about me, and because her first name is the same as mine, nearly had herself convinced she had become me for him. So he married her. Now she's a drunk because she can't live up to her self image and he's finally sussed her out and rejected the 'copy', and he's stuck in a marriage he hates because it would cost him too much to divorce her! LOL
@tessah (6617)
• United States
22 May 08
;chuckles; dont think you quite grasp the term "gaff" and its meaning.. it means to steal, take.. procure.. gaff. thusly if you are most definitely NOT a gaffer.. (adj) you most certainly cannot be doing the gaffing (vb) ha HA! a little word play on ya.. 
it really is sad that someone thinks they are worth so very little that in order to have worth, they assimilate themselves into being something and someone they are not in order to have another care for them. they dont realize that in doing such, they actually lower their own worth rather than attain more. ..;shakes head;..
it really is sad that someone thinks they are worth so very little that in order to have worth, they assimilate themselves into being something and someone they are not in order to have another care for them. they dont realize that in doing such, they actually lower their own worth rather than attain more. ..;shakes head;..1 person likes this
@tessah (6617)
• United States
22 May 08
that is a very legitimate and valid point sparkie. alot of people look for outward means to fix or repair inner flaws. sometimes it is just entirely too painful to face oneself with honesty, so they attempt to flee and try to avoid. line from mad maxx "no matter where you go, there you are" and its truth, you cant run away from yourself.
theres a shamanistic practice involving the shadow-self that deals with this specifically. peices of yer own personality and make up that you (or others) find undesireable, so you stuff them down, lock them up.. and try to pretend they dont exist. the problem is that you cannot deny parts of your true nature, they will often emerge and usually with horrible consequence. the only thing you can do, is accept these parts of yourself as being necessary to your entire whole of self.. and utilize them in a more positive way. otherwise, you stay fragmented, and incomplete..
1 person likes this
@sparkofinsanity (20471)
• Regina, Saskatchewan
23 May 08
I really have tried most of my life to face myself internally and keep my fragments from splintering. I have to compartamentalize from day to day, but I make a practice of going back and bringing them 'out' for examination and resolution. I'm not perfect at it, but to reach middle age (which is when 'the sins of your past come back to haunt you') and not have totally lost my mind or become well and truly screwed up, I think I'm doing pretty well.
I know myself inside out. I accept my faults and work on them constantly. I project MYSELF outward instead of drawing inward the traits of others and I can confidently say, "I'm ok, but you're not!" ROFL
You know what I mean though.
@edgyk8inmomma (2157)
• United States
29 May 08
There was a time when I was the copier. I didn't know who I was or who I wanted to be...so I'd try out other people. Until I soon realized none of these people were me.
Now I am niether. I even try not to borrow little things from other people. I have noticed others borrowing from me, but never to the extent you shared. I do take it as a compliment when I notied someone has changed a little of their self to impliment things they've learned from me. It makes me feel like I got something good...ya know?
@tessah (6617)
• United States
29 May 08
thank you thank you.. and i HAVE said just that to those who do it.. you cant BE me, theres only ONE me.. get yer own personality and quit stealing mine! menge` if youdve seen the way mals gf had started behaving.. even others were commenting on her extreme copy catting, it was primarilly the reason why mal ended their connections.
@edgyk8inmomma (2157)
• United States
29 May 08
yeah, this world doesn't need any carbon copies of me...that's for sure ;)
That would drive me nuts. I'd probably have to ask the person if they realized they were doing it. Then tell the to get a life and personality of their own.
...oh...lots of negs your way :)
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
28 May 08
I'm certainly not a copier, though I will pick up a partners bad habits. I don't see people copying me either. I'm just me. I do tend to stand out and attract attention cause I'm tall I think that's mostly why I stand out...ya just can't miss me. On the other hand, I'm reclusive, so I rarely go and mix with people and when I do I try and stay in the background.
@gemini_rose (16264)
•
21 May 08
Growing up, I was always the one who wanted to be different from every one else, I never followed fashion, never liked it. Instead I would create my own and would never wear what anyone else wore, I wanted to be different, wanted to create my own look, style and everything wanted to be totally different from everyone else.
Many a time I would start wearing something only to discover a few days later that others would start wearing the same things, so I would instantly stop wearing it and find something else instead. I have always been different, maybe that is why I have no friends where I live, no one gets me!!!
Reading the bit you say about finding it difficult to figure out who you are and simply be that, strikes a chord with me as that is exactly the place I am at right now, I have gone from setting my own style, life etc, to getting lost along the way and realizing that I have not got a clue how to get back there, I do not want to be someone else though, I just need to refind myself!!!!
@bournecaindelta (2477)
• India
21 May 08
I'm the one who's copied by some people.. Some people do copy me, but they wait until I change my style and later get back at me saying it's their original style and the made it.. who cares.. Sometimes, I just look at something and try to modify it to my comfort and make a new style, although I'm never proud enough to accept if I have copied. Sometimes, its good to copy stuff which is good and can be useful..
bourne
@tessah (6617)
• United States
21 May 08
everyone takes a little something from someplace else.. its how fashion trends even begin.
im refferring to those who copycat EVERYTHING.. from the color of yer hair, eyes, to the specific way you speak or wear yer jewelry.. even faking and laying claim to flaws, illness, phobias etc that happen to be a part of yer make-up.. all in their attempts to literally BE you.
1 person likes this
@holly1129 (53)
• United States
4 Jul 08
it can be difficult when you get copied alot, espically in a public sense where as when new individuals get to see something that you know you do and someone else is picking up on that and when you arrive, it looks as though you're the copier---ugh!!! whether it's something you say, a song you play and do a little jig to, who knows , so then it's infuritating when others say hey this other person i saw earlier they were...the same...or this happens...you no longer stand out and are assimilated into the masses...and this could happen say something not so kosher goes on and the thing that you do gets attributed to you because when the foul incident happened, all the reference that was given was similar to a signature that you have...yeah - fabulous huh - so what i have done is try to look at it in the light of the old cliche that being copied is a form of flattery and it just helps me to up my game, keep it fresh, invent new ones, it helps me to think and keep on my toes; a spring in my step, and eventually you and so will others will see as the copiers keep copying that you truly are the originator and unique, alive and thinking individual. but i never relinquish my signature on a classic move, instead i let it be known...
