Our Identity-Post #1

Our identity is developed through lived experiences. Everything we go through as a person -relationships, breakups, fights, jobs, it all changes us. A lot of it we don’t control because we can’t control the acts of others. We can’t choose for our parents to stay together, or force a relationship to work out, but we can choose how we react to it-what we do with the experience.

There are however, things that you have zero control over. Nationality, first language, birth gender among others. They are the building blocks of your identity. Without these basic things you would be lost without a sense of direction. However, you can always learn a new language, travel to new countries or change your gender. You can change, but it takes time and commitment. It is not impossible, but it isn’t easy.

Your identity is almost like a multiple-choice test. There is a question which would be what happened (example: you’ve experienced a break up) and a few possible outcomes/answers. You don’t really get a complete choice but you do pick your reaction (example: not dating afterwards). Overall, most of your identity comes with time- with experiences. You can’t choose what happened, but you can choose how you grow as a person afterwards.

-GP