WHO ARE YOU?
who am i who am i who am i who am i
“Accept yourself. Respect yourself. Allow your nature to take its own course. Don’t force, don’t repress. Doubt –because doubt is not a sin, it is the sign of your intelligence. Doubt and go on inquiring until you find.” – The Book of Understanding
Who are you? Who do you want to be?
The divide between these two questions isn’t as great as you think…
Who are you? A parent, student, lawyer, chef, girlfriend, blogger? It’s true that these titles may identify what you are. It’s what we write down on surveys and how we introduce ourselves to others. When we meet new people we immediately ask, “So, what do you do for a living?” as if that gives them great insight into who we are.
Yet, it doesn’t. How we introduce ourselves is based on our role in society -how we contribute. That’s not to say that it’s an irrelevant part of who we are, but does it really identify our true character?
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Who we are is much deeper than a job or a relationship. It’s the part of us that’s different and unique from anyone else, as clichéd as that is. Yet it’s the part of us that not enough people have been able to understand and explore. Our career, family, and the various other mandatory tasks take over our daily energy and there’s not enough left to focus on you.
But at the end of the day that’s who we need to focus on and care about. Because if we don’t know who we are, then how can we know what we want?
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What makes us an individual is our passions, hobbies, hopes, dreams, and fears. But we only share these parts of ourselves with those that we trust, or at least we should. Too many of us keep our true selves hidden inside or have been told to repress who we are until we forget about it all together.
So in order to know who we are we have to question -we have to doubt. From the moment we are born we’re immediately bombarded with the knowledge and expectations of our parents, teachers, friends, community, and society. We need this in order to learn and grow, but at some point in our lives it is time to stop and question. Is what I think and believe really my own? Why do I think or act this way? Once you decide to explore your own mind, then you’ll be that much closer to knowing who you are.
