Who are you?

Answering the question of who I am has always been a curveball for me. You go through life thinking you know exactly who you are, then either someone asks you who you are and what your story is, or you have an experience that naturally provokes the question as a reaction. You then realize you don’t know yourself like you thought you did. It takes some people a lifetime to find out who they truly are and that is okay, we are all on different paths.

In this case, the question is segmented and designed to help me answer the question. The first is ‘the personal’. This relates to the things that make you, you. Thousands of things make me who I am but there are some primary ones that are most relevant and influential. Per usual, the first thing that comes to mind is music. A very large part of my identity, how I see myself, and how others see me is music. This is because music has been a core love and activity of mine since I was very young. In a way I navigate life through music. Another thing that makes me who I am on a personal level is spirituality. For me personally, I don’t like to put any rigid definitions on spirituality. I suppose like anything else, my experience of spirituality is unique and subjective. I contributes in making me who I am not only because I subscribe to it but because it works for me. For some it is religion and for others it is something entirely different. However, for me it is my own sort of sub genre of spirituality that I refined until it fit perfectly for me. Also, a large part of who I am rests in how I treat others. I think a genuine reflection of a person is in their nature and how they treat and interact with others. I try my best to treat everyone with kindness and understanding. I make a habit of self-monitoring my thoughts and mental state. Spending time in nature is another thing worth mentioning when it comes to who I am. I don’t spend as much time in nature as I’d prefer to, however that will change soon. Nature is medicine. Nature is therapeutic. Nature is life.

The next segment of the question is ‘the popular’. This relates to the experience of popular culture. Again, the first thing that comes to mind is music. I have a fairly eclectic taste in music in terms of what I find enjoyable. However, with that being said, I generally cycle between a small number of genres. For every genre I listen to, there is a deviation towards various sub genres of that genre. That is to say, I like just about every genre but nothing in the mainstream. I suppose this gets complicated because definitions of genres and artists vary from person to person. Like the majority of my generation I like hip hop and rap music but i’m picky since so much of it is shallow and materialistic. I love alternative R&B that has jazz and soul thrown into it. I also love psychedelic rock and psychedelic pop. I have a separate love for jazz and recently I have been getting into surf rock.

Lastly, we have ‘the professional’, which pertains to work life. For me right now, this means school. School has actually shaped me in unique ways. I developed a love/hate relationship with school around the time of high school. It plays a role in who I am because of who it made me. I have struggled a lot as a student over the years and it got pretty ugly at times. However, I have always known it has nothing to do with ability or intellect. It is more an issue of incentive, purpose, focus, and motivation. That says something about a person. I know this because I have failed easy courses then immediately aced an entire semester of difficult courses with ease. School makes me who I am because it is the only thing that reminds me that I am a person that relies on incentive and purpose, not discipline and acceptance. However, these days I do great in school. I am still not sure what exactly happened but at some point I tapped into something and have been on the dean’s list for several consecutive semesters and have somehow held onto my sanity.