Who Am I?

The intricacies of life that have shaped my personality and beliefs are vast, and cannot be described in any way that might fully encapsulate the truth of the matter. However, I might start to discover pieces of who I am through a description of my simple yet important background information. I am twenty-two years of age, have Spanish, Native-American and Pacific Islander blood running through my veins, and am from a middle-class family of three. I grew up in the outskirts of Los Angeles County, and had attended private Lutheran schools until applying for college.

While these details of my life are both descriptive and accurate, they do little to effectively create a precise or complete image of who I am. Perhaps it becomes necessary then to describe seasons of my life that have dramatically shifted my view of the world: an unsteady and unfriendly father figure, the adultery and eventual divorce between my parents, the passing of my mother, friends and romantic relationships that have come and gone. In each particular period of life, I learned something new about myself and something new about the world, and as such, became new for it.

And yet, while I might be able to describe in detail each season of my life, this still does not entirely explain the unique aspects of my personality that make me who I am. More than anything else, I am explained by my reactions to all that has happened to me. I have a dark sense of humor, because in my response to particular mistreatments, I forced myself to laugh instead of ruminating on the hurt. I have a passion to care for those in the process of dying, because I refuse to feel helpless when others experience emotional or physical pain. I spend an afternoon or (if time permits) an entire day each week intentionally resting, because I’ve come to value my mental and emotional health over extra time to work. It is my reactions that best reveal my character, and put into words the things that make me unique.