“Who Are You?”
I remember about 15 years ago my cousin asked me that very question. I began with: I am a mother, a wife… She stopped me immediately. She told me that those were a list of titles, not who I am. I was perplexed and though I tried, I had a hard time grasping the concept.
Fast forward 9 years – I was asked to write a bio introducing myself in a company “Getting To Know You” section of the newsletter. I looked at other employee bios that had been spotlighted. They were the standard:
Hello! My name is Suzy Qu. I am from Nowhere, FL. I have been working at XYZ as a counselor for 15 years. I have 3 beautiful children and have been married to the love of my life for 22 years. My interests are swimming, cake decorating, gardening and dancing.
They were all so cookie-cutter-blah. Some of them read like personal ads. I had such a hard time being cookie cutter. For three days I tried but the words that came just seemed inauthentic. Then one night, I recalled my cousin’s question: Who are you? At this time in my life, I knew the answer to this question. I spent the next hour writing my bio and submitted it the next morning. By mid-afternoon, I received a reply stating that it was too long. Now mind you, they provided me no parameters to begin with. I was asked to shorten it. Well, it couldn’t be shortened, at least from my perspective because I had introduced myself in the most authentic way possible.
I was not willing to bend to the status quo. I wasn’t willing to stand in line with all of the other lost identities to gain acceptance. I am not my circumstances. I am not what I do for a living. I am a not a list of titles given to me by society or via another’s perceptions of who I am. Needless to say, I was not featured in the newsletter. I was perfectly fine with that.
So, who am I?
Who are you?
If you have never thought about it, I encourage you to step out of your comfort zone do so. Try to loosen your hold on some of your false identities. Open yourself up to the possibility of the beauty of your complexity. There is freedom in knowing who you truly are.
I would love to hear about what you discover, please share your thoughts!
My Life In Word 
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