Waldo
Waldo is everywhere; we just can’t find him. Waldo paces down the endless halls of lockers, 103, 104, 105, books in hand and bag on back, occasionally getting shoved to the side by someone who doesn’t notice him.
He is not invited to the weekends at the beach with the muscular guys in leather jackets, accompanied by girls in clothes that are so short that it should just not be allowed.
He does not know how to fix a computer in two minutes or solve a chemistry problem in three, nor does he have terrible dental records and wear tucked in plaid shirts.
He does not wear Hollister or Abercrombie V-Neck sweaters and have rich parents and listen to Lil Wayne or Katy Perry.
Waldo takes on a natural invisibility with indifference, or so it seems.
Because if Waldo were the only one raising his hand in class, sitting in the front row, Ms. Harlock would look right past him. If he were to ask out his crush, Jenny, whom he has been in seventeen classes with in the past five years, she would respond, “Sorry, Wilson.”
By senior year of high school, Waldo quietly makes something of himself. Being an actor is his calling; he needs to be seen by one and by all. He wins his first Academy Award for his movie about an unpopular high school student running for class president. From there, his popularity soars. He gets a call from Jenny asking to go out on a date. Ms. Harlock even brags about him to her classes. But after a reporter insists: “Tell us about your life, you must have been the most popular kid in high school,” suddenly, Waldo looks back. His adoring fans know nothing about his true self.
The question now is not “where is Waldo?” but “Who is Waldo?”

Thirty years later, Waldo is middle aged and the only remnants of his teenage acting career are mugs with his face on them and the occasional rerun of a cancelled TV show. Now stuck in a cubicle five days a week from 9-5, Waldo is yelled at on a weekly basis by his boss. Waldo comes home to complete silence, except from his dog who just growls at him as he trudges through the back door in the kitchen. His children watch “1000 Ways to Die” as his wife cooks dinner. Grabbing a drink from the fridge, he kicks off his shoes and pulls his overflowing belly to the side. The only words exchanged at dinner are between Waldo and his son, Wade. “How was school today?” asks Waldo.
“Nobody notices me,” Wade replies. Waldo ends the conversation, picking up his cell phone to read a text and leaving the table. No time for the painful memories.
Because while nobody was paying attention to “deadbeat” Waldo, he was busy saving the world.

Trudging himself to the back door from which he came, Waldo slings his black trench coat over his shoulder, and tosses his phone backward through the air. As the phone spins, the last images on the screen are numbers, counting down, “5 4 3 2 1,” and then it explodes. Waldo keeps walking, opening the door to his garage and pressing a hidden button on the wall, flipping the maroon minivan with a coffee stain and bringing out his government issue Aston Martin. With a license to kill, Waldo heads to Russia to prevent the next Cold War. His job is so cool and so awe inspiring, it comes with its own theme music. He was the one really responsible for bringing down the Berlin Wall. He was the one who sabotaged the missiles in North Korea. He was the guy who brought down Kony’s reign of terror. His job is so exciting that when he punches his enemies in the face, they have to fight off the urge to thank him.
Too bad nobody knows.
But somewhere between saving the world and getting yelled at by his boss, Waldo gets lost at sea. If I were to guess, I’d say that Waldo is probably still on that island, sitting on a sandy beach, legs crossed and palms face up on his lap. No longer is he waiting for a plane or a boat or even recognition from others. After years on the island, Waldo discovers one very profound thing: Himself. Waldo never needed to be found, contrary to what his books portray. He needed to find himself.
And while we may label him, an invisible child, a star actor, a depressed man, a world saving spy, only Waldo knows who he really is. So if we think about it, we are all Waldo. Everyone feels lost at sea, battling for a place in the world. And the first step to finding our purpose, is finding ourselves.
So where is Waldo, really? Waldo lives within all of us, just waiting for the chance to shine through.