Personal Narrative: My Identity

Everything that I have attained in the past helped define who I am today. Everything I have gone through and have done in the previous years of my life molded me into the person I am today. Not only have they shaped me into who I am; but also guided me in discovering the potentials I did not realize that I had. Without the challenges and hardships of the past, I know that I would not be who I am today.

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.

Identity is a complex ideal that everyone struggles with. Consequently, people often will not act as who they are due to a fear of being ridiculed. To me this is such a ridiculous time waster, instead this time people waste on being someone else could be used for much more meaningful memories. Society makes people feel like they have to fit a mold, yet I personally have learned from my dad that it is a necessity of life to accept who you are.

Many 90s and 200s television shows, music videos and movies ignited several stereotypes within America, especially comedic acts and movies. Even though the shows were created for entertainment many individuals begin to think that this was indeed the way a race generally acted. African Americans were portrayed as violent, dangerous and hot tempered, especially African American males due to the fact that there were so many gangster activities taken place within a movie he starred in. To clarify gangster activities, you see the actor shooting or robbing others in the movie, or viciously beating someone in relation to

What makes up our identity?This question has been asked for a really long time that some have attempted to answer but often look at the wrong things that make up our identity.Some people have thought that what makes up our identity are the different important times in our life.Though what really makes up our identity are the 7 categories of otherness.The 7 categories of otherness are race, sexual orientation, age, religion, able- bodied, gender and finally socio-economic.

Growing up a first generation Indian American, I struggled with identity. I asked my parents: was I Indian born-American or American born-Indian? They had conflicting answers. My mother said my ancestry is Indian, but to embrace my American identity. She taught me the values of hard work, independence, and seizing opportunities. My father encouraged me to retain my Indian heritage. He stressed that my traditions, cultural values, and family are who I am. After my parents’ divorce, I ended up living a double life, split between school years with my mom and summers with my dad. Learning to adapt to my parents’ expectations and financial circumstances made me the well-rounded, open-minded and educated person that I am today.

Identity is what I believe the thing that makes up all human beings. Everybody has an identity, some just aren't as brisk to comprehend what it is or what it means. Identity is generally what someone's traits make up and in my case, I believe I am benevolent, venturesome, and optimistic. Some of the qualities I consider myself to have are not what I would have considered myself to be last year. I believe life lessons that someone undergoes can change their identity and the way they come off drastically.

I am a lot more than my caramel skin, big brown eyes, black hair, wide smile and bushy brows. I was born to a mom who is African American and Vietnamese and a dad who is African American and Portuguese. While I was born in California, I have lived the greater portion of my life in Saudi Arabia. I am more international than American. My friends come from numerous countries and speak various languages. I have been fortunate enough to see many parts of the world. I know that my experiences and exposure to people who are different from me has made me more interesting.

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

My Identity is also set by my behavior, personal characteristics and lastly experiences.The struggles that we face define who we are but it all depends how we overcome them and how we handle it. I have experienced many challenges in my life but It gives me more strength to not stop and keep on moving forward. Also I have experienced negative bias but I learned to control It and focus on the positives things going on in my life. Every single time I fine myself struggling I try to step into someone else shoes and think what they might do to overcome it. Personal characteristics that identify me is my attitude how persistent I am and lastly my discipline.I am a persistent women I don't just give up fast I try to achieve despite all the circumstances

Who am i? I am an individual who has achieved many goals despite a childhood and adolecense with much adversity. I grew up I Santa Clarita, California my child hood was realativley normal . My grandmother mary died, when I was 7 and my mother started drinking heavily . By the time I was 11 she was a raging alcoholic and was depressed most of the time. I was helpless, at the same time my father became a drug addict. As a result of her alcoholism my mother contacted cirrhosis and when I was 13 she passed away. I was devastated and too young to lose my mother.

What is identity? Identity to me is how someone views themselves as well as how they

I am a white American female. Another term that can be used to describe my race is caucasian. Some characteristics that come with my race include a fair skin tone and naturally light colored hair. I do not think that anyone can truly be a “pure” race because family trees expand genetically within multiple races, especially in current times. People of all races are reproducing and creating a more mixed environment than ever before.

Who am I? I’m I considered African or African American? So what is my social identity? Social identity is a person’s sense of who they are based on their group membership(s). Social groups such as family, organizations, sports team, etc plays an important role a person’s pride and self esteem. Interacting in such groups gives us a sense of belongingness, which leads to our social identity in the social.

The majority of people find it natural to separate what they believe from who they are as an individual. They are able to draw conclusions from what they believe to be true about the world and have separate experiences that they allow to define them. However, I am very intentional about not allowing experiences to define what I believe to be true or allow it to carry much weight in defining me as an individual. In a perfect world, I would rather allow my experiences to be an expression of what I believe.