Who are you?

There’s this thing of discovering yourself. Finding your true self. People blog about it all over the internet. As if I care who you are? Well, that’s a bit harsh. Somebody probably does. And even if nobody cares, that shouldn’t stop you from blogging. “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song” as Maya Angelou says (no idea who she is, but it’s a nice quote).

I think a lot of people blog because they have a craving to be recognized. Even the people that blog about themselves to try and discover themselves or some mumbo-jumbo like that, they could just as well be writing in a diary instead of the internet, so why put it online? I think it’s a craving for others to appreciate us.

Anyway, about finding yourself… What are you searching for? What does finding yourself even mean? It’s not like there’s a you hidden away somewhere that never changes that is your true essence. We change everyday as to who we are. We decide who we want to become. We decide what to make of ourselves. There is no fixed way a person will act in a certain situation. You decide how to act and it isn’t set in stone. You don’t need to believe in free-choice to realize you can react in many different ways in very similar situations.

There is no essential you. I’m not talking theology. I’m talking reality. We develop as people and nobody is the same person at the age of 10 as they are at the age of 15. Nor are we the same people at the age of 30 and the age of 40.

You don’t need to be terribly self-aware of yourself to understand that you’re a quiet or a loud person. That you’re confident or not. That you’re intelligent. That you have a gift for English, but that you suck at Maths. That you’re stubborn. That people think you’re funny. That you’re a good speaker. That you’re kind. etc. etc.

Yes… some people are more self-aware of themselves than others. There are definitely people that imagine themselves to have many skills that they don’t have. And there are just as many that imagine they are a lot less than they really are. But the problem here is just arrogance or low self-esteem. Fix it. Work on it. Whatever. This isn’t about discovering your true self.

And lastly, people sometimes say this is who I am. I know myself. I am this. I am shy. I will never be a good speaker. As if it is there essence to be a bad speaker, etc. This stuff isn’t set in stone. You can change. You make the decisions on how to live your life and you can become who you want to become.

Stop looking for your true self. We make ourselves anew daily. We choose the people we wish to become.

Who are you? You decide.