Throughout a person’s life, he or she will experience many, large and small events that can impact the outcome of his or her identity. Among those life events, there would be some significant events that leave a permanent mark in our minds, which mean they are memorable experiences. It is noteworthy that they can be both big and small. Moreover, the term “significant event” is quite subjective. It means that the significant event from my point of view maybe different than my parent’s point of view. In addition, those different significant events in another's perspective may give a new insight about who you are. In this essay, I will compare three significant events that have happened in my life, from both my point of view and from my mother’s …show more content…
This further meant that I had to leave my parents and live with my aunt, who was a complete stranger to me. I remembered when I first moved into the new home, I was terrified and I felt insecure, especially when my mother secretly went back to Venezuela without notifying me. Therefore, I tried to hide my emotions in front of my aunt and my uncle. Although they were kind to me and I gradually opened myself to them, still I always felt that there was a line between me and them. Since then, I have develop a restrained personality. In contrast, the second life event that I think may have impacted my identity considerably occured in a restaurant near my aunt’s house. On that day, I accidently tripped over to a chair leg and cracked my skull while chasing around with other kids. I was sent to the hospital to receive stitches on my head. The operation of stitching my head gave me a nightmare when I was told that there would be a permanent scar on my forehead. Since this early childhood incident, I have become more careful and more calm. Unlike my mother’s point of view, my third event is a relatively small thing. In my aunt’s house, one day in the morning, I was eating noodle soup with my uncle. I finished my noodles and I felt that I want some more noodle soup. Meanwhile, I noticed that there was another bowl left for my aunt. My uncle said that …show more content…
But on the other hand, there are two differences within the two point of views. I agree that the robbery incident is a significant event and it did impact the outcome of who I am today, but in my opinion, the accident in the Chinese restaurant is the main reason that I developed my calm and careful personality because the latter happened before the former. In addition, the robbery incident had simply make me more careful when dealing with strangers. Last but not least, the comparison of the third life event is between a small thing and a big thing relatively. Moving to Canada is the big thing and it is an important event for me but when it compares to the small thing, which is the noodle incident, the small thing seems to be more significant to me than the big thing because it taught me a life lesson. I feel that an inspiring motto for my life, is more significant than overcoming the fear of
Personal identity, in the context of philosophy, does not attempt to address clichéd, qualitative questions of what makes us us. Instead, personal identity refers to numerical identity or sameness over time. For example, identical twins appear to be exactly alike, but their qualitative likeness in appearance does not make them the same person; each twin, instead, has one and only one identity – a numerical identity. As such, philosophers studying personal identity focus on questions of what has to persist for an individual to keep his or her numerical identity over time and of what the pronoun “I” refers to when an individual uses it. Over the years, theories of personal identity have been established to answer these very questions, but the
Every person thinks about a certain question at least once in the lifetime. The question that is most thought about is, ¨Who am I?¨ Many people would respond with their name, their parents, or where they live. Others use their reputation, their occupation, and their looks. At last, a few others identify themselves by their significant actions they have done. In some stories, characters try to find out who they really are. In the short stories ¨Fish Cheeks¨ by Amy Tan, ¨Two Kinds¨ by Amy Tan, and ¨Papa´s Parrot¨ by Cynthia Rylant,the characters learn about their identities through significant moments.
Everyone has a special event that determines our life journey. This event can give us identity, happiness or even pain and sadness. The special event that changed my life was deciding to play basketball because basketball helped me find peace, happiness and gave me identity. When I was ten years old my grandfather succumbed to cancer. His death created hatred inside of me.
Everyone has specific characteristics and qualities that make them the way they present themselves. Young, middle-aged, and old people are constantly forming the essentials that affect their self-awareness through their daily activities. Forming one’s identity is an ongoing process, because every person in the world can change people one way or another. In The House on Mango Street, the experiences young Esperanza faced day to day develop her true individuality.
A person does not experience many events that shape their life in a large way, whether it be for better or worse. I have had just one major situation that has sculpted me into the person that I am today. In February of 2008, I was diagnosed with a life changing disease; it would relieve me of the agony I had been experiencing for as long as I could remember, but also restrict my diet for the rest of my life.
This personal narrative is attained only because of the important role History plays in tying these factors together. In order for one to relate identity to difference using the dialogical method, he/she must “position [themselves] somewhere in order to say anything at all.” This position is attained through an understanding of history; a history which...
I could say without doubt that both my grades and my sporting achievements caused great satisfaction and pride to my parents. As a child I could perceive it, and these events helped to reinforced and molded future behaviors. During my teenage years come to I had much difficulty with love relationships even at time having inferiority complex after a breakup. My relationship with my father was not good until I reached adulthood, when I decided to take the initiative to improve it. Although I forgave my father, the shame of the slap is a ghost that hunts me once in a while till this day. Research studies conducted with adults show that intense vivid memories on autobiographical memory are repeated every decade; these studies also provide support for the psychosocial development theory of Erikson, (Conway & Holmes,
A couple of weeks ago, the class was assigned a personal narrative essay and the prompt was to tell an interesting story of a specific experience that changed how you acted, thought, or felt. To be honest, I was awfully excited to write this essay because talking about myself is the easiest thing to write about sometimes. However, deciding what experience to talk about was challenging because I have already experienced so much in my seventeen years of being alive from dislocating my hip when I was three, to seeing my grandfather die in front of my eyes, from almost tripping off of the trail on the Grand Canyon, to meeting band members at an airport. Writing this essay brought me many challenges, I did not know what topic to choose, I had no
Many philosophers and psychologist from Jean Piaget to William James have theorized what makes a person who they are, their identity. Jean Piaget believed that the identity is formed in the sensorimotor stage and the preoperational stage. This means that a child is forming his identity as late to the age of seven (Schellenberg, 29) However, identity is strongly impacted by society such as school, church, government,and other institutions. Through our interactions with different situations our personality develops (Schellenberg 34). "In most situations there is a more diversified opportunity for the development of social identities, reflecting what the individual wants to put forth to define the self as well as what others want to accept,"(Schellenberg 35). Therefore, humans, much like animals, adapt to different situations based on who they are with. Individuals are always changi...
A couple of weeks ago, the class was assigned a personal narrative essay and the prompt was to tell an interesting story of a specific experience that changed how you acted, thought, or felt. To be honest, I was awfully excited to write this essay because talking about myself is the easiest thing to write about sometimes. However, deciding what experience to talk about was challenging because I have already experienced so much in my seventeen years of being alive from dislocating my hip when I was three, to seeing my grandfather die in front of my eyes, from almost tripping off of the trail on the Grand Canyon, to meeting band members at an airport. Writing this essay brought me many challenges, I did not know what topic to
In his 1971 paper “Personal Identity”, Derek Parfit posits that it is possible and indeed desirable to free important questions from presuppositions about personal identity without losing all that matter. In working out how to do so, Parfit comes to the conclusion that “the question of identity has no importance” (Parfit, 1971, p. 4.2:3). In this essay, I will attempt to show that Parfit’s thesis is a valid one, with positive implications for human behaviour. The first section of the essay will examine the thesis in further detail, and the second will assess how Parfit’s claims fare in the face of criticism. Problems of personal identity generally involve questions about what makes one the person one is and what it takes for the same person to exist at separate times (Olson, 2010).
According to Witkavitch (2010) life is about change and as human beings we’re always changing, growing, transforming and transitioning our lives. Our whole life is made up of change. It is relative to time and a natural component of our everyday life. Things change, they grow, they develop, they die, and something else shows up. There are many changes that can occur during a person’s lifetime. For instance, we all were once kids who changed into adults. With that said, as we age, dreams change. There will always be something new in life and we can’t expect everything to fall in place as we wish because the future is constantly changing. In the age of globalization, information and communication revolution changes are affecting our lifestyles, our ways of thinking, feelings and the way we act. Life changes everyday for a person in some way. Just like we expect the seasons to change and children to grow older. Some changes are very small and can affect your life in an enormous way. However, other events can be very important and could change your whole life such as getting married, getting arrested, having a baby, and even losing a close friend or relative. The important events that altered my life are coming the United States, playing club soccer, becoming a U.S. citizen, going to graduate school and studying abroad. In this in paper, I will discuss how these phases transformed my life physically and mentally.
Life is a mixture of experiences, culture, tradition, sexuality, politics and much more. Experiences make us the person who we are today. Describing how an individual handles certain stages in life. These experiences demonstrates how a person behaves, and determines their attitude. In my life I have experienced many things that have affected me in all aspects of myself. How I interact with people, what my actions are, my preferences, and all about me. With my experiences that I have faced I learned many things but one thing that stands out is that everyone should have morals of compassion, kindness, and respect the value of life. This is a very diminutive world and we can take to perspective to be considerate with our actions and say.
Sometimes it just takes one event to forever change your outlook on life. One such event happened to me when I was only 5 years old. My day started out as most 5yr olds growing up in the south in the late 60’s, only I was a bit different because unlike my neighborhood friends, my mom was 55yrs old. My mother gave birth to me when she was 50 years old and I was the youngest of 8 children, most of which were grown with children of their own when I came along. My mother spoiled me rotten, she was very attentive to my every demand. And I mostly demanded cereal, Rice Krispies only! My mother wasn’t very playful with me (what 55yr old would be?) but I felt her love. She would not let me out of her sight, she was always there, until one day she wasn’t. I woke up that morning in my mother’s bed as I often did, and I shook her to wake her up as I always did, only this time the shaking wasn’t working. I remember yelling for my siblings to come wake mommy up, I needed my Rice Krispies! Only instead of waking her up they began yelling and screaming and calling people on the phone. What’s going on? It’s not that serious, just get mommy up! I saw men in white shirts running into the house and then leaving with my mother on a stretcher. I didn’t
Some memories are best forgotten, but it takes courage to go through them. Often, I wish to forget the day when I almost lost my parents in a tragic car accident. As my world came crumbling down, I prayed and hoped that the nightmare would soon end. I endlessly fought the sense of helplessness, isolation and fear of the uncertainty. I was 19 and clueless. Nevertheless, I sailed through these dreadful days and welcomed my parents home after six long months. In the months that followed my parent’s return, I juggled between taking care of my parents, graduating college and adjusting to my new job. Almost 10 years later, this dark phase still has a phenomenal impact on me. Perhaps, because this specific experience transformed me into a grateful,