“Who are you?”

moved from the about page

A question both simple and profound, asked of us regularly in various contexts and theorised about by philosophers since the dawn of humanity.

For some, the answer is easy. I have heard that some people experience a sense of certainty and a conviction that their experience and conceptualisation of self-hood is sufficiently evident that it never occurred to them that there was anything to discuss.

I am not one of those people.

For me, identity has been a life-long journey that has no sign of resolving.

I am not alone in experiencing a self-hood that is out of alignment with socially dominant expectations and there are many reasons someone can have this experience. It could be that who they are is not socially or culturally acceptable in the environment in which they grew up. They may have been through adverse life events that have changed things for them in ways few others can relate to. They may simply be so unlike those in their immediate family that they experience a sense of isolation and self-doubt as a result of having no reflected traits or experiences. As humans, we tend to seek connection, to seek reflections that show us how we are the same as and how we are unique to others. We want to know how and where we fit – to feel we belong, have value, can contribute.

Who am I?
A work in progress.