It’s unlikely that any time soon when someone says, “Monica and Rachel” you won’t immediately think of THAT 1990s sitcom. And just last week I saw “Rachel” on an in-flight broadcast of “Inside the Actors Studio.”  Other than, admittedly, having a bit of a girl crush on Jennifer Aniston based off of her agelessness (I mean, seriously, she looks better WITH age!) I have also long yearned for the personal traits that her character on Friends exuded.

Rachel was so free-spirited, so happy-go-lucky, so effortlessly whimsical, endearing, footloose and fancy-free.

So, aside from wanting the “Rachel” as a hairstyle in the ‘90s, I am drawn to something far less superficial. The reality is, as much as I envied the joyous and without-a-care attitude represented by Rachel, I am a Monica through and through. I can’t “fake” I’m a Rachel when, like Monica, I’m high-strung, ultra-competitive and (gulp) completely neurotic. With time, I’ve learned to wear my Monica-like tendencies as a badge of honor (need I say more than my personalized license plated emblazoned with “A TYPE A”?).

I think of how much energy I can waste, trying to be someone that I’m not, when I should direct that effort toward being a better “me.”

Look, we all admire others for their personal traits and strengths.

That’s fine.

It gives us something to look up to. But don’t get so caught up in trying to be something that you’re not that you lose yourself along the way.

Remember, as that great Irish writer Oscar Wilde put it: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”