Everyday, whether you notice it or not, we all struggle to find out who we are, why we're here, and what we're all meant for. Some look for the purpose of life while others just live life one day at a time. I believe that the best way to find out all of these things, and this is probably the largest cliché out there, is to be the best person you can be. Doing this starts with being your own person.
When you are born, you come into this world with a clean slate. Apparently there are genetic studies that can find out what sport you will be good at, what subject in school you will excel at, and even what disease (if any) you may develop as you grow up. Basically, science is trying to tell us that anyone can find out who you are before they even meet you or get to know you. I don't believe in this stuff. Sure, it would be good to know if you will develop some incurable disease or that you'll be good at some sport, but what are you going to do with this information? Are you going to allow that disease to define how you live your life? Are you going to spend your time perfecting your skills at a single sport when you could have the potential to excel at a completely different one? Are you going to give up on school if your genes tell you that you won't be good at learning? The answer to these questions depend on the individual person. Some of these questions may be easy to answer but here's the bigger question: Are you going to allow the genes that you were born with define who you are or who you want to be?
Science is not the only thing that can determine what kind of person you are. Your family could also play the biggest role in who you will become. Your parents teach you the values that you could have right now. How your parents raise you basically forms the back bone to who you will become. This is not the case for everyone. What if your parents didn't play a big role in your life? Who would you take after? What if they played too big of a role? Would you become just like them? What if their influence was a negative impact on your life? Would you grow up to be a bad person? The simple answer to these questions is yes and no. Your family has a lot to do with how you were brought up but that doesn't mean that your upbringing has to define who you are today, and nor should it. In extreme cases, a child could have drug addicts for parents? Whether or not that child becomes an addict is entirely up to him or her. What if you are abandoned as a baby? Does that mean that you will eventually abandon your own child? Not all children who come from an unfortunate background grows up to be a "bad" person. The same could be said of those who have loving families. A teen who has wonderful parents could become rebellious for reasons unknown. The point is, no matter what kind of people raised you, only you can decide your future. You must learn from your past experiences and choose how those events will mold who you become.
There is another factor that plays a role in who you are today. Friends. Peer pressure. Have you noticed that the people among one particular group of friends are very much a like? This may not always be true but they do have similarities that draw them together. Some people call these groups (like the jocks, preps, nerds/geeks, etc.) cliques. What happens if you don't fit into any one clique? Do you change yourself to fit in? Sadly, a lot of people do this. It is when a person tries to hard to be popular that they begin to lose who they really are? I know that there are some people who are naturally charismatic or people pleasers but not everyone you see is like that. As cynical as it may sound, not everyone is exactly who they appear to be. The person sitting next to you may seem like the happiest person in the world but inside, they could be crying. The school yard bully may seem tough and mean but they could just be as scared of something as you are of them. My point is, people show the side of themselves that they want others to see. They change themselves to fit in with the crowd. They may even be afraid to show others who they really are for fear of rejection. Thanks to so many factors, a lot of people are afraid to be themselves. As much as you might hate to admit it, at least once in your life, you have changed a little (or a lot) of who you are just to be someone that others want. And unfortunately, the fact that you change yourself just to please others says a lot about the type of person you are and the type of person you will become.
Regardless of what or who influences you, you are who you are whether you like it or not. Your identity is based on your choices. Your family and friends may play a major role in this but at the end of the day, only you can make your choices. Good or bad, big or small, these choices shape who you are, present and future, and what you will do with your life. So here are the final questions. Will you let your surroundings determine exactly who you are? Will you let them form the back bone of who you are? Or will you decide everything about your identity on your own? The choice is yours. You are your own person and no one else has the power to control that.