Picture this: you are looking through an old box of childhood books. You see the book “Where’s Waldo?,” decide to take it out of the box, and search through it in order to relive your childhood for just a few minutes. You flip to the first page and within a few minutes, you find the red and white striped shirt of Waldo. Like always, he was hiding among so many other characters, in plain sight but still difficult to find.

In that scenario, you played the role of the reader and the ‘searcher’ who went on a small journey through the pages to find Waldo. But what if you changed your role a little bit? What if you played both the role as the ‘searcher’ and the role as Waldo? As we grow older, that role change is exactly what happens. We are all searchers, yet we are all Waldo.

Life is difficult and presents us with a numerous amount of obstacles, challenges, highs, lows, and rewards — all of which are could possibly change what we do in our lives and change who we are as individuals. In between each of those highs and lows in life, we are constantly looking for who we are and who we want to be. We are trying to find ourselves, searching for answers to the infamous question, “Who am I?.” We are the searcher.

But how do we fulfill the role as Waldo? Simple. While we are searching for who we want to be and who we are, that hidden part of us is waiting to be found. That part of us is sitting in plain sight for us to find, but still hidden enough behind obstacles and challenges that we have not yet seen it — just like Waldo in the ‘search and find’ books. The answers to who we are going to be as we grow and mature are there, just waiting for us to figure them out and see them.

Our generation wants to grow up so quickly and is so set on finding out who we are going to be and what we are going to be like when we get older. But the longer that takes for us, the more we want answers. It does help to know that we are not the only ones searching for answers. We are not alone. Everyone else around us is doing the same thing and trying to figure out things about who they are, as well.

It just might take more time for some people to themselves than others. It is very important to remember one thing, however: even though we want to find ourselves, we have to make sure to enjoy the journey that it we are taking to get there. That means enjoying the highs, picking ourselves up from the lows, facing all of the challenges and obstacles that present themselves, and knowing that we will eventually become who we are meant to be.

Waldo is everywhere, and everyone is Waldo. We are all searching, we all want to be found, and after the right amount of time, we will all be found.