My Family Identity

Every year I look back on the previous and I see how much I have changed. I see the friends I have gained and lost. The heartbreak and the happiness. Despite how rough times have gotten, it has truly made me stronger. Everything has shaped who I am today, it has shaped my identity. Identity is a complex topic because it consists of changeable and unchangeable traits and outside internal influences; my own identity has been shaped by going from private to public school, young life camp, and my current friends.

Many have experienced an encounter as a young child where they are asked what they want to be when they grow up. Answering that question may be easy as a kid because your mind is filled with thoughts of being the unimaginable. As you grow much older, those ideas begin to depart from the mind and you are suddenly more aware of what is and what is not possible in this world. When beginning the most important years of high school, you stop and rethink your career choice numerous times, stressing on who and what you want to be. Many adults such as teachers, counselors, and parents will emphasize the importance of knowing where you want to be in the future during high school, sometimes even middle school. It became imperative that one chose their

No matter how much a person desires to live according to their personal autonomy, he or she will never escape the influence of societal forces. Explicitly or subtlety, these forces shape our individuality. One intriguing manner that these societal forces manifests itself in is our name. As Ruth Graham writes, “It’s becoming increasingly clear today that names carry a wealth of information about the world around us, the family we arrived in, the moment we were born—and that they mark us as part of cultural currents bigger than we realize.” Names alone provide evidence that individuals are made by interactions with social institutions and groups. Ultimately, the inescapable nature of society’s influence demands individuals to ponder how much personal autonomy is actually autonomous and to what extent does the pursuit of personal autonomy lead to a life of emptiness and vanity.

Now there are a lot of aspects that make me as a person, but the one I want to develop on the most would be the fact that I have been raised by two almost completely different cultures, my dad being raised in a more conservative setting, while my mom was raised in a more carefree, but still careful setting, but they both lived in similar living conditions, not having a lot of money, but they found ways in their times to overcome those issues and cope with them. Which makes them similar on how they have raised me and my two siblings, but still quite different in other aspects. I found this part of me, with the combined cultures of my parents, to be very conflicting at times because when my dad would talk about different topics, my mother would just have a completely

I am truly proud of my background and how it has formed my identity. My background consists of me being Portuguese. I could not be any more thankful for how greatly my background has impacted my life into what it is now. It has helped me gain

As I have watched you grow since you were little you have filled your life with good people, strong passions, and a great outlook on life. Next year you take a big step into your future. It’s college time dude, you should be a little nervous but at the end of the day you're going to be fine, just look at your past. Let's put your past in the perspective of surfing a wave, since you like surfing so much. When you're surfing a wave there is a line or in other terms a way through the different sections of the breaking wave. Every time you surf a wave you are looking for this way through this wave so you can ride it as long as possible and get as many turns into it as you can. In your life you have found this way that has allowed you to make the most of your opportunities just like how you make as many turns as you can on the wave. You have also surrounded yourself with family and friends that have pushed you to go with your passions in life as long as you desire to, just like you are able to pick the line that lets you surf the wave as

To many high school students, college seems like a far away land, a mysterious place where everyone wants to be yet not many know how to get there. As children, our parents tell us how much time we have to think about college, and that it is too far down the line to think about. The truth is it is never too early to think about your future. I, like many people, put little thought into my future career and now am lost in an unfortunate mix of indecision and anxiety. Not knowing where you want to be in the future is a hard burden to bear. Many of us tend to find out that we only know what we do not want, not what we actually do want. Do we want to be poor? Absolutely not. Do we want a boring job? Of course we don’t. We all want our

I have an internal conflict right now, and will probably last for the next 3 years. I do not know what I want to be when I grow up. People say you have time left, but three year is going to go by really fast. I feel like I am not going to know what I want to by the time I graduate. Your sophomore year in high school is picking out a career, so I am worried.

In high school everyone expects you to find out who you want to be before you graduate, some of us do and some of us do not. Teachers, counselors, administrators, your own family will tell you that what you do with your four years of high school will define you

As a young student, people tend not to plan out what they’ll do in the future. As a middle schooler, they think, “What does it matter? It’s all so far off.” Then they get into high school and the pressure is heightened. As a freshman, people are telling us, “Start

As a student who is not nearly at the precipice of adulthood, it is very challenging to lay down future plans that eventually, will dictate a crucial segment of your life. I, for one, not only speak for myself but for other students as well. Students like myself are quite dilatory when it comes to adhering to a respective future plan. Until the summer before my senior year, I was utterly indecisive about what career to pursue in college. During that

My social identity plays a huge part in shaping and defining my role as a leader. The way I view myself combined with the way that others view me frames the narrative of my opportunities to be a leader in many ways. Of my various social identity characteristics, the two

Cultural identity is defined as the sense or feeling of belonging to a group. I connect my cultural identity to my immediate family. My immediate family consists of my parents, two younger sisters, and myself. Each one of us has significant values that have been instilled in

Life After High School I’ve just entered my senior year of high school. I know that this is a very important year. I have a lot of decisions to make and not much time to make them. These decisions will either make or break my life, and I want to make sure that I make them to the best of my ability because there is no turning back. I need to make sure I definitely want to attend college. The decision is totally up to me. There are many positives and negatives of attending college. Go over them, and then decide. I know myself better then anyone else, and I won’t let anyone else tell me what to do. I will make sure if I am going to attend college that I have something in mind that I will want to do, to succeed in. Choosing a major can be a

My purpose is to show my individuality and to express myself. This is for others including myself, to see and to remind us that our identity is very complex.