POSTED AT 12:00 AM ON Apr. 7, 2006 | PRINT | Email | SHARE | COMMENTS (0)

Alright, I'll admit it. Sometimes, I want to be famous.

And do you know what? That was a little hard to say. I mean, I feel like I just admitted that I beat kittens or that I cut down endangered trees for fun.

But here's the thing, somewhere between flipping through the Details magazine with Patrick Dempsey on the cover (McDreamy, for all you Grey's Anatomy fans) and watching a DVD of a John Mayer concert, I was struck with this epiphany.

Sometimes I want to be famous.

I fantasize, singing into my toothbrush, that I'm on stage with thousands of fans singing along to my songs or that I'm the "next big thing."

I want people to interview me and ask me, "How does it feel?" and I want to be able to look at the reporter over my very cool sunglasses and say, "You know what? It feels great."

And I want to mean it.

At first I didn't care why, in this hypothetical world, I was famous.

But after thinking about it a little more, I realized that I'd rather not be known as "the guy who got hit by the supermodel's car," or "the guy who won the lottery but lost the ticket."

I'd rather be "the guy who just wrote the theme song to "Mission Impossible 14" or "the guy who just wrote the most influential book of the century" (heck, I'd settle for most influential of the decade).

Now, I know how this sounds. It sounds cheap and shallow and a thousand other adjectives that describe how we all feel every time we hear about a celebrity cheating on a celebrity with another celebrity.

And maybe it is, but I'm not saying it's my goal in life. I'm not saying that from this moment on every decision I make will be to climb the ladder of social status. If it was, I suppose I'd have to stop watching "Boy Meets World" everyday, and that's just something I'm not willing to do.

I'm just saying that I think it'd be fun to be famous.

And I'd be a pretty cool famous person, too. I wouldn't be a jerk or a spoiled brat. No, I'd use my powers for good, not evil. Think Bono saving Africa or Chris Martin drawing equal signs on everything he can find.

But I guess we'll just have to wait and see about this whole famous thing, won't we? I've sort of come to the conclusion that it's not something that I have much control over.

Let's face it, I've missed my shot at being a childhood star and I haven't written any operas or symphonies yet. I'm just a nice guy who lives in Indiana, goes to school, watches too much TV, gets decent grades and has a nice family and pretty great friends.

I'm not saying I have a bad life. I'm not saying I'm unhappy.

I'm just saying, sometimes I want to be famous.