Who Are You?

Lately in English class, we've been talking a lot about identity and what helps us create our identity in society. Isn't it amazing that there are billions of people in the world and everyone is different? Everyone has their own personality and viewpoints and out of billions of people, no one is exactly the same as you.

Last night, I had a family dinner, including all my aunts, uncles and cousins. All together, we are pretty large. There are 22 of us in total and everyone has a pretty big mouth. At the end of dinner, the topic of politics came up. Within a minute, an argument had already started. Here we are, 5 of us who are all genetically related (1 grandfather, 3 uncles, and 1 niece), and we have an extreme liberal, 2 liberals, a moderate, and a conservative.

How is this possible? We all have similar genetic codes and have been raised in similar environments! How did we get to have such political views? More importantly, how did we get to have such radically different identities? Part of it is genetics, I'm sure. But what are the other things? Lately, I've been wondering if we create our own identities by placing everything into a story format. This is an idea we have also talked a lot about in class. In our lives, we place someone as the protagonist and the antagonist. We identify something as the conflict and something as the resolution. Are we assigning roles and creating our identities too quickly, without giving other people or circumstances a chance?

I believe some things that create your identity are outside of your control. One of these factors would be class, the main focus of my blog. If all your life you have been labeled as "poor" or "in poverty" that might affect the way you see yourself and your life. You might believe you are at a disadvantage or have access to fewer resources. In the end, this could hurt you because you could deprive yourself of resources just because of the way society has labeled you. Or, the other side of the spectrum, are the people who have always been labeled as "upper class", as therefore believe they have the "right" to certain things. The way you are labeled by society, whether it is "in poverty, middle class, or upper class" affects how you see yourself and your identity. Be wary of the social and class labels society puts on you, they can affect you for the better, or for the worse.