Personal Narrative: My Identity

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.

Investigating your identity, “who you are” is all a journey we go through as we grow up, especially when going through puberty. Which is similar to when Aboriginals participate in a vision quest as they try to figure out who they are and what life has for them in the future. Growing up you don’t understand the concept of “who you are” until you start going into puberty because you pay more attention to everything around you. As you grow up, your parents start to tell you stories about your heritage, learning about all our traditions. Having my parents come to Canada from Iraq, taught me how to speak another language and the traditions they participated in, generation after generation, showing me what makes my family Iraqi. You start to pay

There are many ways One’s identity can be defined. Only you can truly define who you are. You control what your experiences and influences make of you. When asked who am I, there could be millions of different answers depending on what you base your identity off of. To me, the question who am I, can only truly be answered in one way. So, who am I? For me, it’s an easy question. I’ve always known that I was the quiet girl In the back of the classroom by herself.

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.

One aspect of my identity that has shaped my life experience and the way I see the world is my race. I am an African- American who has Nigerian descent from both parents. Growing up African American is hard for many of us, but we always come together to help each other out. We get judged for our skin color, religion, sexuality, and economic status. When I was younger, I always thought about what other people would say about me and how I looked. Even though it was hard seeing how other races portrayed my race, I have learned to embrace my skin color and not let anybody judge me. The society believes that African Americans are lazy, uneducated, and violent. Things people say about me and my race only make me want to prove myself to them that I am proud of my race and would never change myself for anybody.

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.

When I immigrated to the US, I struggled with my identity, unsure of my place in my new home. This feeling was further intensified with sense of loneliness I experienced when I began community college. For a while, I tried my hardest to fit in but my accent and dress were an indication that I was not from here. In order to avoid the awkward bigoted questions and remarks that would make me feel that I did not belong here, I spoke less and shortened my interactions with others.

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.

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

Identity is what creates us as a person, sometimes we even face some problems trying to find ours. For instance, I was wondering what my two personalities were, but I found out that I have multiple identities. First, is my social identity. My social identity has to do with my friends, family and social activities that I do on daily basics such as dancing, playing sports, listening to music, pretty much any activity outside my school and work environment. My second Identity is cultural which involves food and my music preferences, my first language, and my backgrounds and how I dress. Another one is my identity as a daughter. When I'm with my parents I'm a different person than when I'm with my friends because I believe they deserve more respect

According to merriam-webster.com, the definition of identity is “the distinguishing character or personality of an individual”. I believe that a person’s identity is comprised of many things, including the type of people they hang out with and their actions towards other people. Your identity is how other people see you. I also believe that a person’s identity can change over time due to something like a traumatic event or even the maturity that person gains as they grow older. There are many ways to describe who I am as a person and my identity. I believe the three main facets of my identity are sports, reliability, and, most importantly, the fact that I am a brother.

I do not know. The question of who I am becoming is something that is unanswerable due to my own personal lack of knowledge. My life and the people who surround me constantly change. As a teenager growing up in our current American society, the possibilities of how we want to look and act seem to be endless yet, labels are constantly being put on us. High school constantly tries to change you. Many of us struggle just to avoid living the typical high school cliché while other thrive from it. There are students that will peak and some that will plummet. We are becoming adults but in different forms and attempting to put who I am developing into in words can be extremely difficult. Our values, identities, and beliefs can vary and adapt within those four years or stay the same. Personally, I do not have a clue of who I am or who I am going to be. I have yet to experience that “ah, ha!” moment and many never do. Experiences such as traveling and being a camper at CYO have left me admiring and recognizing the good in the world and discovering the type people who I want to surround myself with. Ultimately, high school sucks to say the least and experiencing it will hopefully not negatively impact who I will become in the future but as I currently live through it, the major event is surviving it.

The most important thing about me—the thing that determines the way I interact with others, view the world, and understand my identity—is that I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I have spent my entire life in Wheaton, Illinois, a small, suburb that values image and success. I am grateful to live in a place with so many opportunities and genuinely caring people, and even more grateful for my parents’ intentional efforts to expose my sisters and I to the world outside the “bubble.” They sent us to public schools where we were able to interact with peers and teachers with different points of view, and they always made travel a priority for our family. We took trips to visit missionaries overseas and welcomed guests from around the world into our