Advanced Essay #2- The Importance Of Identity-Jack Eagen

Introduction- The purpose of my essay is to stress the importance of accepting yourself, and valuing that more than how others think of you. The amount of time that we are alive is very finite, and to spend that worrying about how others see us is just not good for anyone. My essay focusses on that and the impact it could have. I am proud of my essay because I feel like it is a very important subject that should be discussed more often. Everyone’s identity is important to them, it is how we make the choices that we do. It impacts us almost as much as any other factor could. But we worry too much about what others think of us and not enough of how we see ourselves. And as most people know, life is very short, and if we don’t accept ourselves we will live our lives in a much more pained existence that we previously would have. Most people have problems accepting themselves, and I would like to discuss that. The first quote I would like to look at is from a woman named Thandie Newton. She was doing a Ted talk on identity and how we need to embrace each other and ourselves. In it, she said “We each have a self, but I don’t think that we’re born with one. You know how newborn babies think that they are apart of everything; they’re not separate? Well, that fundamental sense of oneness is lost on us very quickly. It’s like that initial stage is over-- oneness: infancy, unformed, primitive. It’s no longer valid or real. What is real is separateness and at some point in early babyhood, the idea of self starts to form. Our little portion of oneness is given a name, is told all kind of things about itself, and these details, opinions, and ideas, become facts. Which go towards building ourselves, our identity. And that self becomes the vehicle for navigating the social world.” I agree with her, I don’t think that anyone is inherently a bad person. However, I think that we are designed to react a certain way to situations. So when things happen in our lives, even as infants, it affects us and makes us into the person we are. Specifically, how our brain works, the patterns and routines that are built into us. But besides that, I do think it is important that we all accept ourselves. And part of that is accepting others for how they act. That doesn’t mean being friends with everyone just because, that will never work because not everyone gets along. But we need to worry less about making fun of people for how and who they are. This next quote is by Sidney Blumenthal who is talking about Death and how different cultures deal with it. But I think it is important to my topic, the article says“In an essay, they contributed to the ‘‘Handbook of Death and Dying,’’ the sociologists William R. Wood and John B. Williamson observe that people in the developed world have managed to banish death from their everyday lives — no small feat. ‘‘In the United States and Western Europe, dying is now primarily a private and often technical affair, hidden behind the closed doors of the hospital, the mortuary and the funeral home,’’ they write. Traditional mourning rituals, across the world, establish boundaries around grieving, to help the bereaved process the passing of a life. In the Philippines, for example, many families hold vigils over several days that allow mourners to be with the bodies of the deceased. Jewish tradition has Shiva, a period of up to seven days in which families stay at home, receiving visitors. Even in households with no such traditions, obituaries for loved ones tend to include instructions for sending condolences and flowers for those who want to pay their respects from afar.”. The reason I included this quote was that it shows that besides your will after you die no one cares about how you felt about yourself. Maybe your legacy lives longer than you do unless you do something that affects the entire world at some point you will probably be forgotten. Although this is sad, I think it should be more of a realization. A lot of people in this world sadly will be against you, so accepting yourself is important not only for the quality of life but dealing with those people. I remember the first time I was at a funeral very vividly. All I could think was, ”Did he die happy?” It was my great uncle. I wondered if he had done everything he wanted to. Was he satisfied with not only his life but those he had affected? Through that, I started to wonder if I would accomplish those things for myself. I wondered if I would get those things done in time. This made me realize how important this was for not only myself but everyone. The last quote I would like to look at is from the Great Gatsby. It is discussing the importance of the green light. The book says “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter – tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And one fine morning –So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. “. What I gathered from the quote was that we could keep having dreams and keep trying to chase them and change ourselves into what we want to be. And in some cases that is good for us. But at the end of the day if we only look to the future and don’t see the good in the day to day we will die before we find happiness. This makes it even more important to accept ourselves. This is not saying always live in the moment, but it is more like always looking towards something that hasn’t happened is not a good way to be happy with yourself. In conclusion, after looking at all of this it might make you a bit sad to consider how short our time on earth really Because of that, it makes accepting yourself even more of a prevalent issue that people need to work on as soon as possible. We always worry about the opinions of others and how they perceive what we do. Instead of doing that, think about yourself and how you want to live your life than rather than how others want you to spend your time. I think that this will lead to people being more happy overall. And as more people begin to accept themselves, hopefully, it will allow them to accept others. This will make everyone a lot happier, and allow the world to become a more accepting place.

Comments