Who I Am

Who am I? Growing up I have always been told that I can be who and whatever I want to be. Who is it that I want to be? And what is it that I want to be? These are questions we have all been asking ourselves since we could talk. This section on identity in Core 100 has challenged me on actually taking a deeper look into this question. It has made me look at how God’s revelation of himself as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit relates and deepens my sense of who I am. In this essay I am going to talk about who I am, how is God related to who I am, and what the big questions I have are.

My personal identity has been marked by people and different situations in my life. The first person that shaped my identity was my mom. Her upbringing was challenging, especially because her

Everyone has a background even if they like it or not. Where we come from makes us who we are and how wme handle life. Most people go through life without knowing anything about their family beyondpast their grandparents. I luckily grew up with both of my great-grandmothers. I was around twelve years old when they both passed but I was blessed to be able to know them. A lot of factors plays into who I am, which includes, my father, mother, their divorce and, my whole family. A whole lot goes into what makes us, us and theses are mine.

Let’s start with what death is. Science provides the following explanation. There are three stages that the body goes through when dying a natural death. The first is the agonal phase. The

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of what makes me who I am is my family. They were all I had when I was born and they’ll probably be all I have when I’m buried six feet underground. I was born into a family with two older brothers (that were ten and seven years older than me), and two loving parents. Being the youngest and having two older brothers I think has impacted me the most. Having two older brothers, especially that much older, put me in a position of having to grow up a little faster. My brothers would they pick on me if I cried too much (making me a tough little thing), but then their older friends would chime in as well. They gave me the tough skin that I am very thankful for now. I am often called an old soul, probably because they teased the young right out of me. Having two older brothers help me think from a very rational perspective, and I am usually told that I think and joke like a boy. Not only do I have two older brothers, but they are also two of my best friends. I wouldn’t trade the teasing, fighting, or craziness for anything.

Now...at the start of one’s soul being lost, one wouldn’t know of it. However, as time would go on, with months passing, that person would begin to realize that..they didn’t laugh as much as they used to, nor did they feel any need to. They would begin to realize that they didn’t feel like laughing, crying, frowning, smiling, or even chuckle here and there. Slowly, they’d begin to merely work away at what they were doing, their expressions, emotions, and even their memories, simply lost, reducing the person to an empty shell that rotted away and

In the story Everyday Use by Alice Walker, talks about family of culture. “Maggie will be nervous after her sister goes: She will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe. She thinks her sister had held life always in the palm of one hand, that “no” is a word the world never learned to say to her.” This means that Maggie is shy and quiet while also jealous of her sister Dee, thinking that Dee has always had everything. I can connect to this quote because there was many times where I got jealous of my sister because she had better things than me. “Instead, Mira married an Indian student in 1962 who was getting his business administration degree at Wayne State University. They soon acquired the labor certifications necessary for the green card of hassle-free residence and employment.” This means that she married someone with the same ethnicity as her, her sister did not. I know someone who did the exact same thing as Mira and Bharati. Overall family can affect how you view others in the world and how you view

The first thoughts I had of why I am who I am came in 8th grade, maybe even a year or two before that. As cliche as it sounds, thinking about why you are who you are holds a lot of weight when it comes to finding answers to these ignored questions: Why am I so damn stubborn? How come I am always the first kid in 3rd grade recess to volunteer to eat the mud-covered worm? Why is it that I have emotions, but they have trouble surfacing? A mere sample of perplexing questions that have permeated my mind throughout my life. I gaze back upon my timeline and piece together the answers, through experiences, to these thoughts. As I come to realize, all the answers can be found in my personality, my values of the past and present, and my mom.

When I think back to why I am who I am, I think back to my childhood and what memories have stuck in my mind. They often come up in certain situations as a reminder to never forget the people that love me, or the places that I love that influence my choices and the road to my future goals. I try my best to follow advice and recollect on the important things in life, like zipping up my coat or enjoying time with my family, making the best out of situations and thinking positively. I remember repetitive smells or touch that one day added to my mind and never left, that will always be a part of me, Now I am eighteen and in college, about to start a new chapter my life and compose new memories with new people. Thinking back now makes me wonder what it will be like to think back years from now to these moments that im making now, and how I will connect them all.

In my life, I have had various events that contribute to my identity. One of the biggest events that have affected my life is when I had my first seizure. I was around the age of five. It was around 5 at night, and I was at my babysitter’s house. That night when we were eating dinner, I know that I didn’t like the type of pizza it was because it was supreme. Once I had finished my breadstick, I was going to grab another one. In an instant, my babysitter, Laurie, had slapped my hand. I didn’t cry, but it did make me upset because she could have said no. After a couple of minutes, my vision became very blurry, and all I could hear was a ringing noise. My body went numb, and all of a sudden everything went black. When I came to I was on the floor with a throbbing headache. My babysitter had already called my mother, and she was already on her way to the house. She only worked a couple minutes away from her house so it didn’t take very long for her to arrive there. When she came inside the house, she looked scared. She kept asking me what happened, but I had no idea. She then grabbed my shoes and took me to the

Many people live their entire lives not knowing who they truly are inside, which is a scary thought. Thankfully I was able to take many tests and quizzes to help define who I am to help me find a purpose and know or understand myself on a deeper level. My life has been affected deeply by a handful of traumatic experiences from a very young age. When I was about 5 my father and mother got divorced because he cheated and got another woman pregnant. He kicked us out of the apartment we had lived in and we moved in with my grandma and have lived there ever since. My dad still continues to find things to ruin in my life, but I have found it easiest if I let the past go and try to move on. When I was about 13 I was diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety, and it has been an uphill battle ever since. I have struggled with many things such as social anxiety, all the way to suicide. I am in a better place mentally now than I ever have been before, but the battle will never truly end. No one in my family deals with this so I was slowly outcasted or shown my feelings are not important. One day I hope they understand what it is like.

In the process of determining who I am, I discovered there are few components I consider key to my identity. Elements such as sexuality, gender, and ethnicity are less important to me as my idea of self could be applied to many combinations of the aforementioned. Instead, I have come to recognize that the components key to my identity have less to do with the physical traits I was born with and more so to do with the values I possess and my own cognition. My capabilities, upbringing, faith, and culture are core to how I define myself and are, in my opinion, the key components of my identity. Who I am as a person has also changed over time and a variety of influences have had an impact on my development. The way I see it, my identity is an ever-changing construct of interconnected components, each with their own unique or shared influences.

Even as a young girl, I have often wondered what it is that makes me who I am. Is it my personality, or my character? Is it my ethnicity? Maybe it is my choice of interests, or maybe a combination of all of these things, because I don’t believe that there is one description or label that is capable of defining me completely. I am a shy person and at times I feel very awkward around people, especially those that I do not know. I am the type of person who will hang back and observe strangers before making the decision about whether or not I want to join in with the group. It is because of this that I am often wrongly labelled as anti social. That is not who I am because I love to be around people once I get to know them, but I am always shy at the beginning. Sometimes I wish that I could make people understand this because I feel like I have missed out on many friendships because of this shyness that seems to come across as me being an unfriendly person, but then again maybe only the people who have had patience are the type of friends that I should be pursuing. I am a positive person to be around and I try not to judge anyone for the choices that they make or the beliefs that they support and I treat everyone with the same respect that I would like to be treated with.

“I can not make people like me. All I can do is show them who I am , how I feel, and what I believe. “It is up to them to understand my worth” ,Makayla. What makes me who I am today? Family, friends, and the sports I play had had always been apart of my life therefore had an effect on the person I'm am today. To my personality, the way I act and even dress. It's just whom I am.

Through the process of creating my mask, I have taken a deeper look into what has influenced me to become the person I am today. I have many interests and hobbies. However, I believe the events and people in my life have shaped me even more than some of my hobbies have. I have learned to overcome the storms in my life and discover the sunshine that sometimes feels far away. Some of the things that have helped me do this are my family, role models, horses, friends, and faith.