No, I am Not Joel from The Last of Us

No, I am Not Joel from The Last of Us

Imagine this:

In addition to Family Friendly Daddy Blog, I have another following on my YouTube channel, where I do a weekly series for young men (age 15 to 22-ish) that focuses on masculinity. Therefore, about 80% of my YouTube subscribers are male. However, my readership of this blog is about 80% female.

Here’s the breakdown: I am better at creating videos for a male audience and I am better at creating blog content for a female audience.

That means most of my YouTube subscribers have never read any of my blog posts and most of my blog readers have never watched any of my videos on YouTube.

Today is one of the rare exceptions in which I tie the two together.

As I’m currently growing out my “postpartum beard”, I received a comment a one of my YouTube videos this week: “With the beard you look kinda like Joel from The Last of Us”.

I had no idea who that was- I figured it might be some new sitcom on CBS or something. Thanks to a quick Google search, I learned that Joel is the main character of a 2013 video game called The Last of Us, in which he must escort a young girl named Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States.

Based on the fact he appears to be a rugged, masculine hero, I obviously take that comparison as a compliment.

Last week I was genuinely mistaken for Tai Lopez. Now today, I’m told I look like a video game character.

I think it’s fun to make these comparisons public. By default, I may create a new series here on my blog, based on when people tell me I look like someone else.

By the time I shave my postpartum beard in a couple weeks, I’m sure I will easily look like someone else I’ve never heard of, as was the case with Tai Lopez and Joel from The Last of Us.

No, I am Not Joel from The Last of Us

No, I am Not Tai Lopez

No, I am Not Tai Lopez

Sunday after church, my family was out running some errands in Spring Hill, Tennessee. A guy I had never seen in my life approached me and asked me, very excitedly:

“Hey, are you Tai Lopez?”

Having never heard of Tai Lopez, I somewhat strangely replied, “No, but I am part Mexican, so maybe I look like him?”

The stranger then explained to me that Tai Lopez has a blog and YouTube channel and talks about money management.

I explained that I do as well, but I am indeed not Tai Lopez.

After a quick Google search after I got home, I learned that Tai Lopez was a self-made millionaire by the time he was 30 years-old and a member of MENSA, the high IQ society.

I suppose it’s flattering to be mistaken for a more intelligent, famous, and multi-millionaire version of myself.

This may sound a bit weird but I’m not that aware of what my distinguishing features are other than dark hair and sort of yellow-tinted olive-colored skin. I mean, I know what I look like, but as far as I’m concerned, I’m just a normal looking guy.

Other than maybe Fred Savage, I hadn’t give much thought to anyone else who else in the world I might look like.

I do become aware of my inability to understand the outside world’s perception of what I look like when I look at my kids. I feel that neither my 5 and a half year-old son nor my month-old daughter specifically look a whole lot like either my wife nor me.

While I do see more of my wife in our kids, I get confused when I try to see myself in them; ultimately, because I’m not exactly sure what my distinguishing features are… other than being similar to those of Tai Lopez.