I had two concepts that really jumped out at me during our discussion. The first was about my existence. I know I exist. I find it hard to question my existence. I know that I am a living, breathing human being. I have four parents, three siblings, tons of friends, and all of my amazing pets. I am nineteen. I live in Alabama. I exist! I cannot picture myself not being who I am because I have had nineteen years to understand who I am. I am me. It is impossible to picture if I had not existed because I know that I am still here. There is no point in trying to picture a life that never existed when I know that I do exist.
The second thing I dwelled upon was the idea of defining myself through my actions. When I was younger, I did not care how I acted at all. I got into a lot of fights and said a lot of mean things.. It did not really hit me that my actions were saying that I was an overly aggressive person to people until this young boy said that he remembered seeing me yell one time and he was terrified of me. I did a turn around and started trying to mentor the younger children of my community. They started seeing me in a completely different light. I learned that sometimes our actions tend to define us even if that is not who we truly are. I was not a very aggressive person but my temper said otherwise. The actions of the other person swinging first were not seen. Instead my actions of punching the girl in the face were seen. We really need to come to an understanding that our actions can paint a completely different picture of ourselves.
P.S. I commented on Joy's post.
Yes, I also know that I exist. I live, breathe, eat, sleep, but the deeper things, what makes me Susan who goes to the University of Mobile, plays tennis, loves New Jersey and hates southern food is a me that took 19 years to become. If my parents had decided to make me play soccer, or if I didn't meet my boyfriend who told me about Mobile I would be a different person. I certainly wouldn't be all the way in the south at the University of Mobile. Everyone is who they are now based on the experiences they have had throughout their life and the way people have changed them. I think that you and I would be completely different people if we met different people or were involved in different activities in elementary school or high school. I takes a lot to make a person who they are.
ReplyDeleteI find it hard to question my existence too. To me it seems sort of silly to try but it is what it is. In the same way I am who I am. That's all I feel like I can really say about it because the concept in itself just seems so weird to me. I think that sometimes it's hard to look at our actions as defining, and it's tricky because one bad day can form a reputation that may not depict who you truly are as a person. It all seems very temperamental.
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