Why I Am I?

Who am I? This question asked so often suggests that there is actually a reasonable answer. Almost as if our own personal being were a fixed thing. Generally, people who ask this type of question are usually struggling with their identity and thus are looking for something to make sense of themselves. The irony is that the more you seek to identify who you are, the more you are exposed to being fragile. Some people spend their live looking for an answer that could possibly satisfy them but still never find anything. The main focus shouldn't be on discovering who you are but on considering the social influences that have affected you.

“How is one to know and define oneself? From the inside- within a context that is self-defined, from a grounding in a community… or from the

Who am I? How do I identify myself? These two questions were the constant questions running through my mind as I envisioned writing a paper about cultural humility. First step, define cultural humility. Cultural humility, as I understand, is the ability for an individual to open their mind and be willing to learn about and find acceptance in differences between cultural identities. Answering the questions above and understanding the definition brought about some realizations within myself that were never really addressed; some of the issues didn’t really become clear until well into adulthood.

There are many factors that shape us into who we are, and who we will become. Some of these factors we can control, while others we cannot. While we are born into many traits of our identities, much of our other behavior is learned. My identity, for example, is “based not only on responses to the question ‘Who am I?’ but also on responses to the question ‘Who am I in relation to others?’” (Allen, 2011, p. 11). My identity and the question of who I am, are both influenced by many aspects of my life, including my hometown, my family, my friends, and my beliefs and moral values.

Background One of the hardest things I, have had to do in my life, is identify what kind of person I am. Do I, want to know who I really am? Or would it be easier to create an idea of myself based on somebody else? These questions, for 44 years have either been thought about, or buried and temporarily forgotten by me. My father always told me to be myself, and he would reinforce that statement by speaking in metaphor to me.

Who I am? Personally, I believe that a person’s identity can take only one of two routes. One, a person’s identity can change within that person’s life. Who I am now, is not necessarily who I was when I was younger. Experience can and will likely modify our identities. Therefore, experience can solidify our personal identification or it can weaken our personal identification. And as such, individuals and their perspectives are always evolving, or at the very least, they should evolve over time. Although there are some identities that evolve throughout one’s lifetime; there are some identities that remain consistent. Two, some identities cannot and will not change. So identities are socially and/or politically forces upon you, some identities are genetically assigned to you, and some you choose to keep. No matter the reason or reasons, these identities have been and will be consist within your lifespan. But, how you deal with them is up to you as an individual.

To figure out who you truly are, we need to look beyond our backgrounds and dive deeper into experiences like rituals, relationships, and restrictions. First, let me talk about the rituals that help define me as a person and as a local. The rituals I participate in help develop me as an adult and mature my mind and behavior. According to Taiye Selasi, our experiences shape who we are. One of my most important rituals is participating in church. This helps build my wisdom and is a way to bring peace to my mind and soul. Not only am I defined by the rituals I take part in, but also through the relationships I share with others.

Who am I? It’s just a three-word question, but the answer is not so simple. People are three-dimensional and complex. Each individual is unique, with their own set of physical traits, personality traits, life experiences, God-given talents, and vices. People are dynamic and these things can change with time. We like to put names to these things, like to stick people into categories. We like to put our best faces and acts on and hide the things were aren’t so proud of.

Who are you? What defines who you are? Why makes you who you are? What is your personal identity? Have you ever sat around pondering the meaning of life, or maybe just your life? Have you asked yourself any of these questions? What were your answers? These are questions that people have been trying to answer since the beginning of time, before me and you were ever born or thought of. People live their whole lives trying to figure out exactly who they are and what their purpose is in life. In the field of philosophy, many philosophers have had theories on personal identity and a person’s “self.” These people have gone down in history books for their theories on a person’s identity: John Locke and Rene’ Descartes. These are two of the most

Who am I? I am a child of God, a fellow heiress of Christ, created in “the image and likeness of God” (NLT, Genesis, 1:26). Not only by physical traits, the Homo sapiens species were formed with a living soul and spirit capable of developing a personal and spiritual relationship (John 4:24). Descendants of Adam and Eve, we were born with a sinful nature by their transgressions. (I Tim 2:13-14).

     Two things can happen when we are required to base our definition of “self” on others.  One can take others’ ways of living and thinking, process them, and formulate his or her own definition, independent of anyone else.  Or, one can use the relationships he or she has with other people on which to base their own definition of self, thus making him or her dependent on those other people.  As young people, we learn and take in all we can through the world, our experiences, and relationships with other people.  From there, we grow and establish our own identities, our own “selves”, in response to those interactions with others.  This definition is continually growing and progressing as we evolve as people, interacting with different people in different environments and

Who are you? Who am I? These are questions that we all ponder at some point or another in our lives. As human beings we are seemingly inundated with the desire to classify and categorise. We are constantly defining and analysing the differences that we observe in the world, it seems only natural that we would apply this method of classification to our position within our society. More specifically, we want to understand our social identities and this can be achieved by acknowledging which groups we identify most with.

Who am I? What is my place in the world? What do I want to do with my life? These are some of the most fundamental if not somewhat cliche questions that we as humans ask ourselves. From the moment of birth, we begin on our long journey toward not only discovering the world around us but also discovering ourselves. Although the journey of self-discovery is lifelong, most developmentalists agree that it is during the adolescent years that we seriously begin to consider the question of who am I? One of the most famous people to describe

All people are unique and come from diverse backgrounds. Throughout, this paper I will be examining some of my key identities as well as how these have impacted how I view the world and how this defines who I am today. I will do this by using the RESPECTFUL model which identifies the factors which define a person; consequently, all the ideas brought up will not only be mine but based on a more concrete understanding of humanity (Ivey, Ivey, & Zalaquett, 2014, pp. 18-19). Moreover, the purpose of this examination is to expand my understanding of myself while also identifying some biases or challenges I may face due to my background or upbringing.

As I look back on my journal from the first week of this class I notice how different yet the same my answers to the question “who are you” are. In the first week, I still talked about how I identify as a hard-working college student that strives to meet her goals. I think, still do this day I identify as that. However, now I like to go in-depth with that question. Not only am I hard working but I am hard working because I strive to get my homework done on time, ask questions when I am confused, and participate in class discussions when I have something to input instead of sitting quietly like I typically would. I think that after studying identity for a whole semester I can grasp and identify who I think I