Journey of the Sidekick

I refuse to fully cast myself as a hero.  I find heroes sort of boring -- all that tall, slender, pristine, high-born, marked-from-childhood stuff doesn't interest me.  When those types succeed, it's almost anticlimactic, because it's expected.  The only interesting thing you can do with a prophecy is avert it.  I prefer sidekicks, nobodies from nowhere who do the dirty work so the hero can get his name in the paper.  I think Campbell's journey could be applied to my life, but I don't regard it as a journey of the hero when I take it, because I've got a beard and a bad body and I'm 5'8".  Plus, it isn't going to end with me being the king of anyplace.  So when I start on Campbell's journey, I call it the Journey of the Sidekick.

I have completed the Departure phase of Campbell's journey.  I first heard the Call to Adventure when I graduated high school.  I did not take it immediately.  I liked where I was, and I didn't particularly care about where I was going.  I went to college for a year after graduating, but spent more time partying, playing football, and pursuing women than actually going to class.  I dropped out after a year.  Thus, I refused the call.  I spent a few years, bouncing around, doing this and that, none of which was interesting.  I ended up in the belly of the whale, unemployed and broke (and indifferent to these facts), before I crossed the threshold and began studying seriously.  I discovered that I wanted to do something more than just work I didn't care about for money I don't care about.

I would say that right now, I'm somewhere on the Road of Trials.  I must complete a series of tasks and then return to the regular world of career people.  I would say that I have definitely not taken these steps in the order that Campbell presents them.  For instance, I'm still not sure if my supernatural aid is gonna get here.  I have met many temtpresses, and other sorts of temptation as well (hello, Netflix!) while I'm still passing my Trials, and I haven't had any encounter with Campbell's version of the Goddess yet.  So it will be interesting to see where this ends.