Personal Narrative: My Identity

What is identity? The definition as a person’s own sense of whom they are, which their past define them. Identity is very important in our society, no matter your social status. I can attach identity to belonging to something or place. As human race, we feel the need to belong to a group or place. Because belonging to a group or place, give us the sense of identity.

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.

When I introduce myself I will state my name and something they would either know or remember me by. Never would I immediately go into a story on who I am or how I found my identity. That, quite frankly, is a little too much to handle. If they were to get to know me, they would discover many things about just exactly who Kaitlin Wyse is.

Identifying my identity is a not a very easy thing for me because a few of my strong beliefs have flaws and loopholes. If someone’s reasoning for doing something I believe to be wrong my strong opinion on my belief is questioned. My identity is a work in process like many other and more times than not I do not even know who I am. I have always believed in the practice of accountability for your words and actions as well the act of showing people the respect they should be given.

Everyone has an identity, and it is our identity which defines who we are and our place in society. Our identities help other people to draw conclusions about who we are, as well as, spotlight values and beliefs. Our identities have the power to positively or negatively affect how we live our lives, as well as, have the power to affect how we interact socially. Identities can be shaped and molded by the communities in which we live, the schools we attend, churches where we worship, the sports in which we participate, our race, gender, and physical features. Many of my friends, family, and acquaintances, describe my identity as being strongly influenced by my disability, my family values, and my fiercely independent nature. Prior to writing

I always knew my identity was one that speaks that I am very compassionate towards others and have great patience, but it wasn’t until the impact of one little girl that made me realize I hold the interest in wanting to give back to the community by helping others who are incapable of helping themselves.

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.

How many different “hats” do we each wear on a daily bases. From our careers, to our family and friends we all have different identities that we claim and live out day to day. These identities help us define who we are. “When we identify ourselves, we draw on a host of different characteristics associated with various social groups to which we belong” (King 2012, pg. 429). My ornament is explaining the social identity through a snow-women and her many hats.

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.

My individual identity is formatted to show what I do and what makes me different because everyone has different opinions about their identity, but that just shows how we're all unique in some ways. I placed my specific sports and activities like baseball on because they make up who I am. The music albums I listen to that make me a part of a collective identity of other that share the same interests in music style as do I. Sports also tie into a major part of my collective identity because they play a tremendous part in my life that I can talk about and share my opinion with friends and family. To represent my national identity, the pictures I had shown are famous parks and museums that I had visited a to because these landmarks represent a

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.

This is the stage when you form your own individual identity and separate from the oppression based system of hierarchy. This is the stage I developed through the help of my mother. Even when I was bad she would install the power of knowledge in me. She always installed on me that I had to go to college. I went through this stage when I stopped associating with my high school friends. I notice that they had nothing going on with their lives and were dragging me down with bad influence. Once I decided to go to college I stopped all contact with them. Going to college changed my perception on life. I know that with the proper education I can be anybody I want to be and I can have an equal chance in society. I stopped feeling like I was oppressed

Every day I wake up knowing I’m going to have to fight the same war within myself that I do everyday. A war that isn’t visible to the eye, nevertheless a war I never feel I will be free from. It is a humiliating feeling to be fearful of your mind as if you are its prisoner. There are days where I will do anything just to survive. Anxiety has become a sickness that I can’t shake. The way I was brought up plays a significant role in developing a personality derived from perfectionism as well as fearing any sort of failure, due to developing an anxiety disorder. Anxiety has clouded my sense of “who I am,” as well as, affected me physically and cognitively.

The memories in my life constructed me into who I am today. From a young age all my experiences have been merging together to form my strong and unique identity that I take pride in. In my eyes I see my identity and myself as a strong willed and a motivated individual that will stop at nothing to succeed. From what I can interpret my identity revolves around my faith and by the challenges I faced growing up and how I defeated them. Starting with a divorced family, then living with my struggling single mother and my older drug addict brother was a real conflict. Although, my identity wouldn’t be the same without that conflict. In that time period I found my passion that allowed me to stay strong and find myself in the pain which ultimately showed

Independent , strong, confident , words I wish I could use to describe myself. Growing up; I was raised in Bremerton, Washington. At a young age I learned to be independent, taking care of my younger sister and brother. While my Dad was in and out of prison, along with my Mom not straying far from that same path. At this time in my life I didn't know I needed help, at the age of 5 I thought it was completely normal to live with your grandparents, completely normal to see so much hate between a mother and father , where it was normal to spend more time watching my mom hide the bruises and scars, all while trying to restrain her tears from her kids. At the age of 5 I learned to be independent. Just a year later at the age of 6, my mom changed