Identity
Identity is a fickle subject for me. I think the idea of identity has changed a lot over the years, as people have become more empowered to be who they are and not necessarily who people expect them to be. As a 41 year old woman, I have gone through several rebirths, transformations, and discoveries about who I am as a person. It seems to be ingrained in us from an early age: WHO AM I?
We are taught we are either boy or girl. Happy or unhappy. Nice or mean. Successful or a loser. So many people put some much emphasis on that label they place on themselves to show everyone who they are.
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I have never been one for enjoying labels. I remember being given labels I did not want growing up. From the tiniest little girl in kindergarten who was told she was too small so she was labeled “shrimp”. Or that her hair was too dark and she skin was too olive, so she was too “ethnic” for her predominantly white, blonde-haired and blue-eyed school. Or being called “too poor”, because she was not at the socioeconomic level as the other kids in her school. It was a weird, embarrassing thing to admit you did not have your own room like all your classmates did.
To me, identity, when pertaining to society’s idea of it, is less about being your true, authentic self. It is more like a restraint, to force someone to be in a box that they cannot grow or thrive in. It is true that identity can be important to some people. To me, identity is something I use to guide me through my life. Is this the person I want to be? Am I being my true self? Can I do this without needing to be labeled within a certain group or idea. I always identified as a free spirit because I did not need the identity label to define me as a person.
Honestly, the only identity I want to truly claim is human being. The world might be better off just using that as an identity as a whole. Maybe then there would be less divisiveness among the people of this wild planet.
