Personal Statement : Who Am I?

For my identity project, rather than being creative by tying my identity to something symbolic or creating an extended metaphor, I realized the best route for me was to write a paper. This wasn’t because I was too lazy to find some sort of creative outlet, but I thought that the best way for me to evaluate my identity is by telling my coming out story and how it was affected by my identity and eyedentity. I tried to think of some way to make this creative, but I realized that the best way to do this would be by just writing about my experiences, and then talking through it.

There were many people in my life that got me to who I am today. My family and friends were the main people that influenced who I am. There were many events that influenced me but the most recent one is picking early college.

Lee University’ mission in scholastic curriculums is, “to develop within the students’ knowledge, appreciation, understanding, ability, and skills which will prepare them for responsible Christian living in a complex world.” In implementation, the practice of ethical action, redemptive service and responsible citizenship within the church, local community, and globally, are emphasized. As an older student at Lee University, I admit that these values were heavily communicated to me, by my mother, from an early age. After high school, I did not pursue a vocation and worked in a factory in Alabama for a couple of years. It was during this time, that I realized, that God wanted more out of and for me. I returned home to Tennessee, and by

I classify my race, ethnicity, and culture as a white, Irish-Italian- American, woman. My mother was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and my paternal grandparents are from Sicily, Italy. I imagine being first generation Irish and second generation Italian makes me relate more with my ethnicity.

I thrive on gaining knowledge. Even now, as a non-traditional student and busy mother to two young children, learning excites me. As an 18-year-old in Germany, I began a 10-year career as a military analyst that honed my ability to think critically, pay attention to detail, and visualize holistic solutions to unique problems. However, I spent my free time riding a bike along The Rhine searching for a quiet space to settle in with the wisdom of books such as The Art of Happiness and The Elegant Universe. There, on those riverbanks, I discovered within myself an innate curiosity of the mind and the fundamental nature of the world.

Looking back on my life then, I can see how some of my personal identities play into my missional calling. I am a person that really likes helping and taking care of people. I hate seeing someone in pain or having a hard time. It really plays a role on my emotions, so I always feel the need to help people in need. But I also really like taking care of children. Children are so fun and free. These identities all played into my missional calling to help people and be there for someone who needs support. I think I always wanted to help people growing up because I didn’t know how to help my dad when I was little. And I felt guilty about standing around and ignoring the problem. Right after I graduated from middle school I had the opportunity to volunteer for girls and boys club for the summer. With this program I got to be with children everyday and look after them. I got to take care of them and have fun doing activities that were carefree and life changing. This is when I knew I wanted to work with children when I got older.

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.

I care deeply about people with disabilities. I believe that people do not understand what is really like for someone who happens to have a disability. They treat them rudely or differently. They do not understand the way the perceive topics, the way the take some remark a person may have said, and they do not understand that they are teased. I think we need to think before we do things.

Why I have become who I am today? This is a very simple question with a very complex answer. I am a result of biological, psychological and social-cultural influences. All three of these thing have shaped me into the person that I am today. My social location has also helped to shape me into the person I am today.

Personal Identity deals with philosophical questions that arise about ourselves by virtue of our being people. Man must have a relation in order to thrive in an abundant communal environment, in this essay I will be talking about identity and purpose, and how my experiences have shaped my identity and shaped my belief on the telos of humanity. The telos is related to my personal beliefs.

I am unique because of my personal hobbies, dreams, and values. My favorite hobby is to play basketball. I think basketball is a very exciting sport to play and watch. I usually play basketball with my friends on the weekends or by myself. I love that basketball can be played indoors, outdoors, and is enjoyed by many people in the world. I have been playing basketball for 10 years and plan to continue playing in the future.

I have loved animals as long as I can remember, and have worked hard to understand and learn everything I can about them. My mother bought me a horse when I was ten, I had her for five years before we sold her and moved, I have worked and ridden at two different horse barns over the last five years so I know how to work hard. In 2014 I raised and slaughtered 200 meat chickens, in 2015 I did 100 more. I currently own a jersey milk cow, four lamacha milk goats, and a couple of meat rabbits.

During my high school career, I have been a participant in the National Honors Society, the Beta Club, the McIntosh band program, and the Peachtree City recreational soccer league. I am also currently an altar server team leader at Holy Trinity Catholic Church. I joined Beta Club in the spring of my freshman year, and I currently maintain my membership. I also joined the National Honors Society in the fall of my junior year, and I am also currently maintaining membership in this club. In both Beta Club and National Honors Society, I devote my personal time to helping others in my community in order to create a better society. For example,

What describes my identity? This is a question I have rarely been asked, and, it has me thinking, because I belong to a lot of groups. We all belong to multiple groups in my case, I am a college student, Christian, music, African American male, caring for my future, love spending time with family, I love traveling, and I live in the United States of America. Although there are more, these are groups that relate to me and generally relate to others. Different events shape my identity such as when black were not liked to different organizations where a lot of African Americans are successful and looked at differently in a good way whether that is sports or music or any other thing that anyone in the world can be successful in. So I believe a lot of event within my culture and organizations that have people in them that we look up to help shape my identity. I understand the focus was one thing that described me or my identity but I believe that one thing does not shape me or who I am. Just like in History there are multiple events that make up History itself because when you think of History you do not think of just one event that happened.

I was born _name__ on _date__ in _place__. I am a son, brother, uncle, nephew, cousin, and friend. I was desperately shy as a small child, but grew out of it. My teen years were happy times sports, friends, summers spent in __place_. It all helped shape me into who I am today. My interests are many. I have always enjoyed reading about history and follow the history channel faithfully. I love music. It's been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I find it calming when life gets rocky.