"You do not know the limits of your strength. You do not know what you do. You do not know who you are."
--Dionysus, "The Bacchae" by Euripides
When I was in eighth grade, we were assigned the dreaded "Who Am I?" project--a series of several short essays about oneself, designed to develop our writing skills, particularly the voice of our writing. While watching my mom grade this years' batch of Who Am I's, I started pondering how much I've changed since I wrote my own. It was more than six years ago, which may seem like an insignificant amount of time, but I've lived nearly a third of my life since then.
Answering the question "Who Am I?" is a rather daunting task. Of course, the bare facts of my identity are obvious, as readily accessible as pulling out my driver's license. Name? Stephanie Elizabeth Greer. Sex? Female. Date of Birth? March 24, 1989. Organ Donor? Yes.
But we like to think that who we are goes deeper than the brute information we provide to the government. Our experiences, our relationships, our dreams, our beliefs, our accomplishments, our personality, our character: it is in these non-quantitative details that we truly find our identity.
Answering the question "Who Am I?" is a rather daunting task. Of course, the bare facts of my identity are obvious, as readily accessible as pulling out my driver's license. Name? Stephanie Elizabeth Greer. Sex? Female. Date of Birth? March 24, 1989. Organ Donor? Yes.
But we like to think that who we are goes deeper than the brute information we provide to the government. Our experiences, our relationships, our dreams, our beliefs, our accomplishments, our personality, our character: it is in these non-quantitative details that we truly find our identity.
I am much more complex than what any series of essays [blogs] I write can ever begin to contain. In many ways, I do not know who I am. But perhaps in putting pen to paper [fingers to keyboard] in an attempt to define myself, I will move further along the road of self-discovery.
