Reflective Essay On Self Development

Self-development is no overnight process. It’s slow and it’s winding, a merging of internal and external development extending throughout one’s entire life. Like all human growth, it begins the moment male and female chromosomes are joined together inside a woman’s reproductive egg. In this moment of unity, nearly twenty-one years ago, my mother’s and father’s DNA were shuffled together like cards, with that exact moment deciding my physical and personality traits. However, nine months later when I emerged from the womb, it was exterior forces that began to shape my identity. From my infancy to my toddler years, emotional care decided my psychological wellbeing. With further growth I became more observant, questioning with child-like fascination: What is this shape? What color is

When I realized my privileged social position, I questioned the fairness of it. After learning of evil deeds in the world, present and through history I wondered why it was allowed? Was there anything I could do to help? And still I continued to contemplate life’s greatest mystery: by what means are babies made? Though it would take longer for the later, it was religious and parental guidance that would give closure to these questions. When not influenced by these, I looked to the inspiration of friends and teachers for answers. But it was in the start of my Junior year of college that I finally broke free from all outward influence and opportunities for true self-development began to emerge.
There’s never been a definite place or culture in which I’ve chosen to found my identity upon. You see America is a wonderfully diverse society, not only in skin-tone, but in culture, religion, and even general cordiality as well. In all its fifty states, I’ve been blessed to have visited thirty-three of them. California was my first. In the summer of 1997 I was born in the town of Bakersfield, the closest drive from my parent’s residence in the Tehachapi desert. I have no