Personal Narrative: I Am Charlie Young

My identity can be defined by moments in my life. Moving to Canada, learning English and going to high school are three major moments in my life. Going through these experiences have changed the person in me and made me more confident, stronger, better in everything.

Culture and identity are inextricably linked concepts. Identity is formed by your culture and in turn your identity shapes the respective cultures of the groups you identify with. I belong to many different cultural groups, and my identity is a complex web of competing and conflicting beliefs, experiences, and characteristics. My identity is not only complex, but also dynamic, as the experiences I have change who I am.

My Identity connects to my culture because it describes the way I look and the point of view I have on certain topics. My culture is the Native American tribe, Wampanoag and I am also Mexican. I have some facial features and body structures from both sides of the family like: most of my family has brown or black hair, we are taller than the average human, and our faces have an oval shape. Some topics that my family has taught me from both sides of the family is, family always sticks together and always comes first, and If you see bad things going on in the world, always try to help and do whats right. From my Dad’s side of the family, I learned tons about survival skills and on my Mom’s side I learned a lot about traditions. An example from

Identity. Who we are. How we define ourselves. Imagine taking away something that defines you. You’re left feeling “who am I?”

Identity is a very in depth topic that explores someone’s inner self, simply putting it; identity is what makes you the way that you are. I have honestly never pondered this question in such depth. So receiving this essay, it was bittersweet, I have never pondered this question before, but on the other hand, being the age that I am it is important to understand my identity so this is a good opportunity to do so. While pondering this question, I have found that my identity consists of different elements that contribute to who I am. These elements include my religion, my character traits, talents, environment, and my aspirations and my passions. These elements influence the choices I make that strengthen and broaden my identity.

One of the things that I struggle with in life is Identity. I have been questing God about seminary school, family, friends, work, marriage, kids and even the color of my skin. I come from a place where if you are a black man wearing a pair of jeans with a white tee shirt you are considered a thug, or if you have twist, dreadlock you are a thug. I come from a place where your father is not in your life and over 70% of he black man are raised in a fatherless home. Where most of uses are raised in the street because, them are the only man in our life that will pay use some attention. But in my case I was blessed to go home to a dad ever night even though I can’t tell you anything about my father for the simple fact that he never gave me a hung, kiss, tell me he loves me, spend any time with me, say anything positive, always talking to me and my mom like we are noting, even beat my mom and when you try to tell family about it they just look at me like am crazy.

The word identity is normally associated with race, religious beliefs and looks, however, I believe identity is much deeper than that and can only be seen by its beholder. It is a person's inner passions or interests, who they are inside.The topic of identity made me think deeply about who I am and what I value; how others may perceive me as.One hard thing about this exercise was deciding wheater or not to include religion as a part of my identity, and in the end my religion did not define me enough to include it in my identity. At about eight o’clock at night when I was stuck on the topic of identity and who I was, I realised that it was not my race, religion, or looks that shaped me personally

A majority of people I have spoken to despise running; the activity inducing a great deal of pain and wasting time are common reasons I hear. For me however, running has always been a part of my identity and it shaped me as the person I am today. Whether it comes to intense races or exciting games of tag, I feel a part of me glistens with joy whenever I put on my running shoes and get my feet moving. My interest from running goes all the way back from elementary school.

As the daughter of immigrants, I had grown up with a strong idea of what my culture was and how I identified myself. This identity had influenced my beliefs and the value I believed my parent’s culture held. My background had revolved around being raised by parents who had both spent a majority of their lives in Vietnam before moving to the States. This meant I was going to be influenced by the Confucian ideas which remained prominent in Eastern and South Eastern Asian culture as well as the Buddhist religion which my mother followed. All of these traits along with the environment I grew up in had affected how language had become a major pillar in my culture and identity, continuing to play a part in my relationships and actions today.

I just need to look around me to guess that most people, if not all of them, suffer through some sort of identity crisis, whether it is psychological, social, sexual, or another. But that knowledge doesn’t really help me answer that deceptively simple question: “How would you describe yourself?” Probably the most honest answer I have for you today is some long version of “I don’t know.” I am trying to find some answers to that question, though, and that’s something pretty new for me.

On paper, my life may appear to be an average, uneventful life with no real experiences to shape who I am as a person. However, I can firmly say that while I may still be young, high school has taught me many life lessons and helped form me to be who I am today. High school has been a series of highs and lows, with many successes and some failures. Before I reached high school, failure was a foreign concept to me, I had never truly experienced what it meant to not succeed at something in the first attempt. This was a hard lesson for me to learn and accept, but I can now see late in my senior year that these failures helped me grow into who I am today. Along with the growth brought on by failure, I also began to treasure my successes more, and feel a sense of accomplishment in my achievements.

The sunlight beamed through my window, waking me up to the sound of birds chirping in the tree outside. It felt just like any other morning to my happy ten-year-old self. Three days had passed since Christmas, and I was still relishing my new presents and Christmas break. As I entered into my living room, my brother Corbin was watching TV and who snuggled up in his favorite brown blanket. I made myself comfortable on the floor in front of him, when his phone rang. The call appeared to be my brother's friend since kindergarten, Ulu, who lived in Texas. As they proceeded to talk, I watched Corbin's face fill with confusion and concern. He had called to ask my brother if his best friend and our next door neighbor, Danny, had died. Corbin knew

“Why do you think dad’s here?” exclaimed my brother with his usual curiosity of the unknown.

What makes up an identity? Your friends, family, and culture can all play parts into your identity, but how can you show your identity to someone who isn’t you? By presenting the different sides of you, of course. My project illustrates the amused, serious, playful, and loving parts of me in different areas and situations. I had pictures of me with my friends, family, and some of. It displays my identity in multiple different fashions and therefore deserves an A.

Everyone believes in different things. Some people believe in barbecue, some people believe in Shakespearean sonnets, and even some people believe in shrek. But me, I believe in running. It has benefited me more than I could have ever imagined, and shaped me into the person I am today.