Photo by Frederic Poirot
Everyone, at some point in their life, finds themselves asking, “Who am I?”
Basically, we are asking ourselves about our own identity. It is definitely an important question, and something to ponder. It can take minutes, or even years, for some people to answer this question. In fact, it can sometimes be a question to which there is no answer. From the happiest to the saddest, the wealthiest to the poorest, the most educated to the least educated, and the most sociable to the loneliest, “who am I?” is a prominent question that people sometimes leave unanswered.
Colleges often try to attract students by emphasizing that they are more than just a number on their campus. How is this applied? Within a body of over 1,000 students, how is one student different from the rest? How is one student differentiated from the hundreds of other students on that same college campus who most likely have the same purpose as you? Note that this problem doesn’t exist only in colleges but also in high schools, work places and anywhere else. Along with “who am I?” come the questions: How am I portrayed? Who am I to other people? Why do other people know me? Is our identity defined by our goals and priorities or our success and accomplishments? The people we associate with? Our wealth? Our grades? Being identified by our goals is a very ambiguous aspect of this question. We simply cannot define our goals to everyone we know or might know. Many people do not know what their goals are at many points, nor do those goals remain the same throughout their life.
“[This question] can take minutes, or even years, for some people to answer.”
So maybe you have achieved your goals, and now you’re wondering about who you are and what people think of you. Then is identity defined by your success? Galileo Galilei accomplished a lot during his lifetime. He proved the heliocentric theory of the solar system, discovered sunspots and moon craters. Though he accomplished much in his lifetime, he didn’t receive recognition for it, and thus was silenced. As he lived in a period of time when the Church was in the center of all science, his theories and conclusions were often considered contradictory to their religious beliefs. It was only after his death that his research was noticed and he was recognized as the father of modern physics. So is our identity defined by our success and accomplishments? Maybe.
Galilei is an extreme example. Many people are aware of their own fame, and have seen great success. Some examples include Mark Zuckerberg, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Margaret Atwood, and Justin Trudeau. But what does this mean for personal identity?
“Stick with the right crowd” is something our parents, teachers and mentors repeatedly tell us. It is true; if people deal with the wrong crowd, they can end up at a dead end. Who we associate with also defines us. This is mostly true for educational institutions from middle school to university. One doesn’t have to be identified with a clique, and can rather be an introvert. Let’s look at celebrity Emma Watson. She is a self-identified introvert, successful actress, attendee of Brown University, known for helping to publicize the HeForShe Campaign, and is a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. But who would she have been to her peers before her fame? Does this matter?
“It is a tough question, but one that demands introspection; what is your legacy to this campus and to this earth?”
In middle school and high school, there existed cliques for us to associate ourselves with like-minded people. Sociologists Peter and Patricia Adler from the University of Denver classify the cliques in middle school to be the popular group, the fringe group, the friendship circle and the loners. Though middle school can be considered important in terms of forming what kind of person you become in high school, I find it to be the least significant. The transition from middle school to high school is so huge that many people realize they can become someone they weren’t back in middle school.
The most important thing to remember is that after each segment, we can change ourselves. We don’t have to be seen as the person we were in the next few years but if we keep changing, who are we really? Wealth and grades are mostly synonymous. They are both temporary. We can have money one day, and lose it all the next. This exists for grades also, as we can have good grades one day and have below average grades the next. In high school, there were ceremonies for those students who got straight A’s and for those who never missed a day of school. In those brief moments, a student would get a certificate from a random staff member, receive a congratulations and stand in front of hundreds of applauding students. This can feel good for a few seconds but is that what students are really looking for? Is that how they are identified, as that student who got straight A’s? Life is simply a never ending ladder.
In high school, we work hard to impress our dream universities. In university, we work hard to impress our future employers. This span of trying to impress other people already takes up approximately eight years of our lives. If we continue to impress others, where is the life that we want? Where do we define who we are? The question “Who am I?” can only be answered by you. It cannot be answered by me, nor by your family and friends. Only you can answer it. This article is not meant to answer the question, but simply guide you to where to start looking. You just have to set some time aside one day and look deep within yourself. The most amazing result of answering this question is that many other questions will appear in front of you, one of them being “what is my purpose?” To be honest, I don’t even know who I am nor do I know what my purpose is on this earth. Now I challenge you to take a few minutes to ponder and describe to yourself, in detail who you are, what your goals are, and your reason to be on this earth right now. It is a tough question, but one that demands introspection; what is your legacy to this campus and to this earth?