Who are you? Tune in at 9/8c to find out!

Lately I’ve been careful. I’ve been looking over my shoulder if I’m walking alone at night, crossing the street in the presence of mysterious strangers, using the peephole in my door, contemplating the best way to jab my keys into a potential attacker’s neck. I am not really someone to be trifled with, currently.

“Georgia,” you must be wondering, “what sort of female empowerment/self-defense/powder-puff mechanics course have you been attending? Where can I sign up? I, too, want to be more aware of my surroundings and safer!”

The answer, gentle reader, is I have not been attending a workshop of any sort. I have simply been staying up into the wee hours of the morning, my feet propped on my desk and a bowl of Cap’n Crunch hovering just below my chin, streaming hour after hour of episodes of the television show “Heroes” online.

And it has affected my behavior – a lot. The “Heroes” world is basically at the forefront of my mind constantly. If you aren’t aware, this world is inhabited by superhumans who have to fight evil with superhuman powers to save the world. As a result, I consider this aforementioned evil around every turn, and I act accordingly.

This isn’t the first time this has happened to me. Last year I removed myself from life for a week because of overactive anxiety and subsequent outbursts of irrational, counterphobic behavior. (Look it up, self-help enthusiasts!) I planned to take a break from activities and relationships and spend some time recharging, discovering myself. What did I do instead? Streamed “America’s Best Dance Crew” from MTV.com while eating Cap’n Crunch.

And I’d be damned if, when I returned to life, I wasn’t using the phrase “That’s so hard” more than a couple times an hour. I also constantly gestured with both hands outspread as if to address a crowded amphitheater, even if I was just talking to one person.

My friends thought I had tapped into my inner being and retrieved a new, sassier version of myself. In reality, I was just acting a hell of a lot like renowned hip-hop choreographer and B-boy enthusiast Shane Sparx, a judge on the show.

This phenomenon is mostly amusing, but it’s also a little scary. It’s cute when you take on mannerisms of your friends: “ZOMG Sarah I just did your hand thing! We are getting soo close.” But when the people you mimic are characters on television shows? Hmm ... that sounds suspiciously like the people you spend the majority of your time with are the people on television shows, girl.

It can be strange. It can make you question whom you are and how stable your personality is. But my advice is this: If you find yourself in this situation, laugh, recognize it for what it is and don’t let it overcome whom you really are – a person who is so fresh, so hard and who just did the sickest B-boy headspin this show has ever seen.