Fame Is Not Always Good


7. It has been said [by Andy Warhol] that “in the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.” Describe your fifteen minutes. (New York University)

My camera is my most important possession. People often say that possessions cannot be as valuable as friends, family, feelings, or other non-materialistic things. I think they’re wrong. To me, my camera has the value of someone’s life. My camera is my third pair of eyes (the second being my spectacles). Without my camera, I would see the world different, I would miss out on so many sights, views, and experiences. I would pass by things without noticing them.
My fifteen minutes of fame were the worst of my life. The truth is that the pain of it had been stretched over 2 weeks and the recognition only for those fifteen minutes. I had lost my camera. Having gone back an hour later to find it where I thought I had left it, it was there no more. I went to all the lost and found places I knew of and it was nowhere to be seen. They posted the missing item on the school website, but no one saw it. The next day, a teacher lost her camera and flute. They announced it in assembly and it was dutifully returned to her. I asked for the same to be done for me.
Sitting there in assembly my name was announced with the words “missing camera.” Everyone turned to look at me, as I tried my hardest to hold back the stream of tears ready to flow down. I had lost my vision. I had lost my sight. I used to carry my camera with me wherever I went; having it rest on the small of my back helped me feel secure. I had lost my security. For the next fifteen minutes, everyone near by asked me questions, and I answered them hoping one of them would have some information on it. I answered questions all morning, but my efforts then were in vain. I was new at the school and was under the illusion that not many people knew me. That illusion was shattered in my fifteen minutes of fame. The fifteen minutes of fame that were eventually the reason I got my camera back. All thanks to a dutiful student who had picked it up and deposited it in my English teacher’s office.
My fifteen minutes of fame were embarrassing, sorrowful, and painful but they eventually brought back my sight and my happiness.

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