Identity refers to the personality, expressions, and beliefs that make a person and can be either positive or destructive. People tend to have a self-image of themselves in their minds. Identity can be shaped and influenced by culture, surrounding environments, family, personal interests, or associations. The characteristics that determine who a person is define their identity, and typically, people belong to more than one group at the same time. Everyone has different definitions of terms associated with their identity, such as caring, loving, and hardworking mother or wife.
For me, I am a caring person, and most of the people I relate to know that. There is nothing that I cannot do for my loved ones and friends. I love and cherish them so much, even though people think that I am strict. People close to me usually describe me as a kind person who is ever forgiving since I am always there to help. As for my vision, a person is caring when they continually try to ensure that others are well and happy. It is someone who gives both their resources and time to other people generously and is always considerate about others when making decisions. I have constantly been generous with my time, especially for my loved ones, as I regularly ensure that I create time for them no matter how busy I may be. I also send encouraging notes to people facing problems since it can mean a lot to them and remind them to remain strong amid challenges.
I consider myself a loving person, since in the contemporary world, love is what people need. Love is an important key to a happy and fulfilling life and according to me, being a loving person is all about showing expressions of affection to people with no form of selfishness. I chose to be a caring person to ensure that all my meaningful relationships were maintained. As a wife and a mother, I have been hugging my children, intending to comfort them and reassure the care I have for them. And whenever I reach out to my partner, I always ensure that my behaviors fulfill his desires and not mine. I compliment my husband as much as I can, and luckily enough, he usually feels acknowledged by my words since I make sure that the statements I make are more of a reflection on him. I always ensure that I do not manipulate him but offer him a genuine appreciation by valuing him for who he is.
I have been proving myself to be a loving and caring mother and wife through being hardworking. According to my definition, being hardworking is all about being willing to learn new ways to ensure growth. I always want to be the best for my loved ones, so I enjoy learning things that can work for their benefit. I am regularly punctual in waking up so that I prepare breakfast for my husband before he goes to work and then prepare my kids for school. I have never failed on this at any point since I got married. Whenever my husband sees something that I don’t know how to prepare, I always take the initiative to learn and make it up for him. I frequently have stamina and show perseverance no matter how hard things may be in my family.
Counterargument
On the other hand, there are those people who leave others to define their identity for them. They let people reveal to them their uniqueness based on their past, present, and future. This is done by considering one’s occupation, background, gender among others. They tend to get their self-identity from the opinion of others about them with the assumption that what they learn about themselves emanates from others. Their self-esteem is then formed from this and their confidence tends to increase when they receive positive compliments from others (Noonan). These kinds of people tend to imagine how others see and assess them and then develop their view of self from those judgments. For instance, they can only define themselves as loving, caring, and hardworking when other people view them as such.
The actions that may seem to be loving and caring for one may be perceived and described as cruel by others since people interpret things from different angles. In society, people can describe you as loving and caring based on your actions and their perception of you without considering your motivation for doing so, yet the motive is what matters. They tend to focus on the expressions one shows and do not care whether they are done selfishly or not (Devlin et al. 379). For example, they may consider you loving when they see you complementing or hugging others without wanting to know if it was for your selfish ambition or not. Others may term you as hardworking when they see you engaging in numerous activities in the name of diligence, yet that is not so for me. Diligence without the ability to learn new things is futile.
It is essential that we define our own identities in this life since when we let others do so, their description of us may be biased. Defining and analyzing our identities boosts our potential and stops us from being exposed to certain vulnerabilities. It is worth redefining who we are and identifying what we are good at and what we love doing. Characterizing ourselves boosts our esteem and motivates us to develop into better versions of ourselves.
Work Cited
Devlin, Michael B., and Natalie Brown-Devlin. “Using personality and team identity to predict sports media consumption.” International Journal of Sport Communication 10.3 (2017): 371-392.
Noonan, Harold W. Personal identity. Routledge, 2019.