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My Identity : Family, Culture, And Personal Identity

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Defining personal identity is to define a personal quality that makes me unique in comparison to my peers. My personal identity has been shaped by many external factors. Some aspects that have influenced what my personal identity is today are family, friends, culture, environment, personal fascination, and consciousness.
To truly understand my identity, I have to start at the very beginning. The date was September seventh, 1999. It was a Tuesday, under the sign of Virgo. Bill Clinton was president, Mambo No. 5 was in the top 5 hits in the UK, Jackie Chan directed the most popular movie of the year, Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy was one of the best-selling books, and most importantly I was born. I was born to Shilpa and Ajay Paul in Rockville, Maryland where we lived for three years. When I was three years old my sister was born and my family moved to India. Living in India gave me a lot of what now makes up my cultural identity and taught me a lot about my family and our roots. Despite the great opportunity I was being given, I did not understand the experience of living in India would help me become more in touch with my family and myself. When we moved back to the United States, I did not think I was going to be ostracized for my skin color, my religion, or the way I spoke. We moved to Texas, Portland, to be exact, which is a fairly small town outside of Corpus Christi. There were only two families in Portland who were not white Christians, my family and my cousins,
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