Personal Narrative: Identifying My Identity

Growing up a first generation Indian American, I struggled with identity. I asked my parents: was I Indian born-American or American born-Indian? They had conflicting answers. My mother said my ancestry is Indian, but to embrace my American identity. She taught me the values of hard work, independence, and seizing opportunities. My father encouraged me to retain my Indian heritage. He stressed that my traditions, cultural values, and family are who I am. After my parents’ divorce, I ended up living a double life, split between school years with my mom and summers with my dad. Learning to adapt to my parents’ expectations and financial circumstances made me the well-rounded, open-minded and educated person that I am today.

There are many ways One’s identity can be defined. Only you can truly define who you are. You control what your experiences and influences make of you. When asked who am I, there could be millions of different answers depending on what you base your identity off of. To me, the question who am I, can only truly be answered in one way. So, who am I? For me, it’s an easy question. I’ve always known that I was the quiet girl In the back of the classroom by herself.

I hope all is well. It has been two weeks since your email, so I thought I follow-up with you, give you some info for my siblings and update you about my new certification.

Who am I? I’m I considered African or African American? So what is my social identity? Social identity is a person’s sense of who they are based on their group membership(s). Social groups such as family, organizations, sports team, etc plays an important role a person’s pride and self esteem. Interacting in such groups gives us a sense of belongingness, which leads to our social identity in the social.

How many different “hats” do we each wear on a daily bases. From our careers, to our family and friends we all have different identities that we claim and live out day to day. These identities help us define who we are. “When we identify ourselves, we draw on a host of different characteristics associated with various social groups to which we belong” (King 2012, pg. 429). My ornament is explaining the social identity through a snow-women and her many hats.

The majority of people find it natural to separate what they believe from who they are as an individual. They are able to draw conclusions from what they believe to be true about the world and have separate experiences that they allow to define them. However, I am very intentional about not allowing experiences to define what I believe to be true or allow it to carry much weight in defining me as an individual. In a perfect world, I would rather allow my experiences to be an expression of what I believe.

The summer following my senior year in high school, I was called to serve in the, “Virginia Richmond Mission,” for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was anticipated that I would serve for a period of eighteen months. This was a voluntary decision: one that would require I leave my home, family, and loved ones behind to focus all my time and efforts on serving others and sharing the good word of God. I knew that this experience would have a huge impact on my life and help me to build my character.

This is the stage when you form your own individual identity and separate from the oppression based system of hierarchy. This is the stage I developed through the help of my mother. Even when I was bad she would install the power of knowledge in me. She always installed on me that I had to go to college. I went through this stage when I stopped associating with my high school friends. I notice that they had nothing going on with their lives and were dragging me down with bad influence. Once I decided to go to college I stopped all contact with them. Going to college changed my perception on life. I know that with the proper education I can be anybody I want to be and I can have an equal chance in society. I stopped feeling like I was oppressed

When I pondered all of the character traits that I retain, a prominent attribute that recurred to me was that of independence. I have been called

A majority of people I have spoken to despise running; the activity inducing a great deal of pain and wasting time are common reasons I hear. For me however, running has always been a part of my identity and it shaped me as the person I am today. Whether it comes to intense races or exciting games of tag, I feel a part of me glistens with joy whenever I put on my running shoes and get my feet moving. My interest from running goes all the way back from elementary school.

All things considered, I do consider myself today, to have a strong sense of self, and understanding of my own personal identity. The phases and circumstances of my adolescent years shaped me to be the strong independent woman I am today, but withstanding this journey, there were some aspects of my identity that I had considerable struggles with. As stated in earlier passages, my internal struggle with my intellectual self was a difficult and long battle, and although today I sit here writing a paper for a graduate school course (something 6 years ago was not an option) I still struggle with the drive to make right my academic failure of my past. Like my academic struggles, another internal identity conflict I tussled with for a very long was my racial and ethnic identity.

As we grow up we grow up we form our identity. Identity is our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent’s task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles (Myers, 2016, p.153). Erikson’s statement is true for myself. I have different identities when I am in different environments.

For a majority of my life, I have struggled with my identity. I never knew what to identify as or which group I fit into.

I just need to look around me to guess that most people, if not all of them, suffer through some sort of identity crisis, whether it is psychological, social, sexual, or another. But that knowledge doesn’t really help me answer that deceptively simple question: “How would you describe yourself?” Probably the most honest answer I have for you today is some long version of “I don’t know.” I am trying to find some answers to that question, though, and that’s something pretty new for me.

Whenever I turned 18 I really wanted to get my ears pierced, again. I already had two lobe piercings and one upper cartilage earring, abut my cartilage earring had been done wrong, so for the last three years it was always hurting when I wore an earring in it. I talked to mom about how I wanted my ears pierced again and she didn’t like the idea, she said it was trashy, and tacky. I didn’t care, I still wanted them done again, but done properly by a licensed piercer at a tattoo parlor. I was still in high school and they had rules on how many piercings you could have, and I had softball so I couldn’t wear earrings then either, so I waited.