Identity: Influences and Passions
As I looked across the table, facing a man wearing a University of Wisconsin sweatshirt in the University of Michigan library, questions began to roll through my head. “What’s Chance doing here?” (which I will admit was a little harsh). To understand this fashion choice and its implications, I asked Chance the first question to come to mind, “So, where are you from?” Chance replied, “Well, I’m from Texas”. This only added to my confusion, but Chance quickly continued to answer, telling me “My family is from Texas, and I lived there for a short time, but eventually my family and I found ourselves in Madison, Wisconsin.” Continuing the conversation, I asked Chance to describe his own experiences in his youth. While Chance did mention his parents, a character that continually showed up in his past was his grandmother. Curious, I asked him “Could you tell me more about her?” Chance’s grandmother Mia, a single mother from Texas, had formed her own successful business in a time where misogyny was more prevalent and even
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Chance responded, “I play sax, which is pretty much the only hobby I can do at the moment as it’s so demanding”. As he told me this, I noticed that his eyes lit up with interest and excitement. Chance was first exposed to the saxophone at his church, which used the saxophone in gospel music. “My father loved the sound of it. I loved the sound of it. What I found most interesting was the range it could produce: from cheerful to this somber, nostalgic sound”. Soon after, Chance took up the saxophone in 4th grade. “Looking back, it was the most appealing instrument to a young 4th grader,” Chance chuckled. “Plus, my dad didn’t want me to do drums on the fact that those were too loud.” Following this selection, Chance continued with the saxophone through his youth. After high school, Chance had attended at the University of
No matter how much a person desires to live according to their personal autonomy, he or she will never escape the influence of societal forces. Explicitly or subtlety, these forces shape our individuality. One intriguing manner that these societal forces manifests itself in is our name. As Ruth Graham writes, “It’s becoming increasingly clear today that names carry a wealth of information about the world around us, the family we arrived in, the moment we were born—and that they mark us as part of cultural currents bigger than we realize.” Names alone provide evidence that individuals are made by interactions with social institutions and groups. Ultimately, the inescapable nature of society’s influence demands individuals to ponder how much personal autonomy is actually autonomous and to what extent does the pursuit of personal autonomy lead to a life of emptiness and vanity.
There are many aspects of identity in the poem “Sex without Love,” by Sharon Olds. I can relate my own thoughts to how the author views the subject that she talks about in this poem. There has been a situation in my own life where I was thinking to myself, just as the author was, “How do they do it, the ones who make love without love?” (Olds 740). Having been raised as a well-rounded and disciplined person, as well as religious, I know the discouragement of having premarital sex. It’s not just the immorality that these characters are experiencing that the author is talking about, but they probably have personal issues that have to do with a their self worth and identity. These
Personal identity is essential in the human experience. Identity is complex and can be broken down into two main groups: introspective identity, and bodily identity. Introspective identity is based off of the groups, mentalities, or beliefs that you align yourself with, and bodily identity is based off of the physical side of yourself. Whether physical or introspective, your identity impacts every action you take. Whether choices ranging from what colors you prefer to which college you want to attend are primarily based off of your introspective identity, which is a combination of both memory and consciousness, physical identity impacts how others perceive you. Consciousness is mainly the awareness of bodily identity as well as continuous introspective identify, while memory is awareness of introspective identity. These two different facets of identity are imperative in the distinction between bodily identity and introspective identity. In means of personal identity introspective identity (which is evident in memory), is essential, while bodily identity (based partially in consciousness) has less credit.
A person’s identity is shaped by many different aspects. Family, culture, friends, personal interests and surrounding environments are all factors that tend to help shape a person’s identity. Some factors may have more of an influence than others and some may not have any influence at all. As a person grows up in a family, they are influenced by many aspects of their life. Family and culture may influence a person’s sense of responsibilities, ethics and morals, tastes in music, humor and sports, and many other aspects of life. Friends and surrounding environments may influence a person’s taste in clothing, music, speech, and social activities. Personal interests are what truly set individuals apart. An individual is not a puppet
During adolescence I began to develop my identity. Prior to this period I identified as the chunky, overweight child who depended on approval from her parents to succeed. During this time I was able to explore through trying new activities such as volunteering in the community as a third grade Sunday school catechist and playing on the field hockey team. I also was in accelerated courses, so maintaining high educational standards also became part of my identity. According to Erickson, what I was experiencing, “Identity verses Role Confusion” was typical of teens. During this time my values and interest in the special needs community began to develop into something that I have now turned into a career. This allowed
To be an American is to have traits of freedom the thing that the founding fathers counted on is to have the will to speak freely and to have the will of religion in the constitution it say that every citizen should have life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This impacts and brings everyone from different places to help create a society that is free. The founding fathers also counted for the people to speak for what is right. The reason is because this helps out on what the people want instead of the government wants this goes to show that the people matter and that is what makes a person happy and also makes a person feel like they have the pursuit to be happy.
I slumped down in my seat and crossed my arms, trying to look unimpressed with everything that was happening around me. That’s how I always managed to look, so it wasn’t hard. The new kid walked in and I took a good long look at him. He was easy on the eyes and two of the girls in the front row were giggling to each other and pointing at him. He looked at them and winked; the psychos almost fainted at that. Everyone here had mental issues.
I will be arguing that the essential component of personal identity is the not the vehicle of consciousness, but rather the collection of experiences, personality traits, and ethical beliefs, individual hold. I will show that though the vehicle of consciousness may be a substantial visual and sentimental sense of the self, it is not as necessary experiences and personality traits to the extent of personal identity being present and maintained through space and time.
My purpose is to show my individuality and to express myself. This is for others including myself, to see and to remind us that our identity is very complex.
Everybody has an identity, it makes them individual and unique, and it defines who you are as a person. This project about my identity showed me what makes me unique. I would have never known how much my friends mean to me or how my identities connect with each other. I have three identities that make me who I am, cultural, personal, and social. A specific quality that covers my cultural identity is being Czechoslovakian. Both sides of my family have at least a part of Czech in them. My great-grandparents are from Czech Republic and my grandpa was the first generation in America, he was born in Ohio. This is very important because I have always identified as Czech and it is a big part of me, as I am so interested in ancestry. For my personal identity, the biggest part is my personality, being loud and outgoing, has always been important to me. The reason being, it is how people view me. A lot of people know me as the loud person or the person who talks a lot. That is meaningful to me considering I like people to view me in a certain way The last identity, social, is one of the most important to me because it involves my friends, and through this project, I learned how vital they really are to my social identity. I realized that I have a good amount of friends in this project. It is nice to have people as a support system and to relate with. These qualities show that I value being loud and outgoing. It also says that I value my family and they are a big part of life. The last one, social, ties in with the first one because it shows I am outgoing and friendly.
Identity is what evolves us, it is what makes us think the way we do, and act the way we act, in essence, a person’s identity is their everything. Identity separates us from everyone else, and while one may be very similar to another, there is no one who is exactly like you; someone who has experienced exactly what you have, feels the way you do about subjects, and reacts the same to the events and experiences you have had. This became prevalent to me as I read through many books, that everyone goes through the process of finding who they are. A prevalent theme throughout literature is the idea that over time one develops their identity through life over time, in contrast to being born with one identity and having the same
People every day have an idea of who they want to be but cannot attain this ideal image due to the social influences surrounding them. It is hard to go against the grain and be who we would like to be when we know it will cause a negative reaction from those around us. For many, it may be familial influences raising them to go into a certain profession. For others, it may be the idea that they need to make a certain amount of money and are responsible for supporting the family completely. It causes people to enter into a profession that may not make them completely happy as they are doing it for the benefit of others. Although I believe I will be happy in my future profession, it was not what I had originally planned for myself. Through social norms and influences from society, my professional identity has been shaped by the people and ideas around me.
Many people question themselves, what is it exactly that makes them unique? What is it that defines them as a unique person that no one in the world possesses? In philosophy, these questions do not have just one answer, and all answers are correct depending on which theory appeals most and makes sense to you. In general, there are two ways people approach this question, some say that a person’s identity is the “self” that carries all of their experiences, thoughts, memories, and consciousness (ego theorists), and some say that a person’s identity is just a bundle of experiences and events that a person has been through in their life, these people deny that the “self” exists (bundle theorists). In this paper, I will be arguing that a person’s identity is just a bundle of experiences, denying the self and the memory criterion.
Identity is one of the most important things about a person's character that no one could ever strip from them. Everyone has their qualities and characteristics that make up them and create unique personality. These qualities within a person are so important that without them they would not be themselves. I would feel like my application would be empty without explaining my back story about the time that I was adopted. This background is essential to me and how i live my life.
What is Identity? For almost everyone, they would say that it is who you are. But, it means so much more. Identity is the experiences that will influence your life. Your identity is who you are and the decisions you make. Without identity, you wouldn’t be who you are today. Your identity can change in a matter of seconds, and there is no way to ensure one's outcome