By To many of us, college is a quest to find our identity.
What is identity? And are the students at Carroll College satisfied with what they find?
The easier part of this question can be found in a dictionary. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, identity is a person’s name and other facts about who they are.
However, finding our identity is more complex than a definition.. Having an identity is the one thing that will stick with us. Throughout our lives, the thing that someone says after our name will be our identifying factor.
Even when our time is up, our identity, and how people knew us, is what is left behind.
I’ve thought about this recently. How do I want people to see me? Remember me? Do I already have an identity, or do I need to take a deep search into my life?
As of now, I can only characterize myself lightly. Most of these characterizations come from what I do.
My roles as resident assistant, Intramural Coordinator, editor of this paper, and member of track and field team are what I would consider my current identities.
However, after some thought, I question if these should even be considered as someone’s identity.
Am I an editor? A runner? A student?
Do any of those labels really capture me and my life?
Most college students say their labels, relationships, and communities are their identity, but are making these things our identities a mistake?
When we’re in a group or a club, we have a community. When we place ourselves and our whole life in it, it starts to make us feel like it is our identity and all that we are.
However, I feel as though our identity should go deeper than the things we do, and rather should be what we take away from them.
Athletes, for example, may learn resilience, responsibility, or composure.
Our identities should be a judgment of our reactions to life, and the things we take away from it.
Maybe the things I do and participate in are not my true identity, but rather the things I have learned through these experiences at Carroll are.
Carroll has shown me that I want to be adventurous, caring towards everyone, and a goal chaser.
Do all students believe that they have found their identity with the help of Carroll College? Or are there circumstances that stop them from this?
So to clarify, what is identity?
Obviously, if I had this figured out, we wouldn’t be discussing it right now.
Am I a writer? An editor? A runner? Future businesswoman?
Those seem like things I do, but I’m not sure they capture what I am.
I know for a fact that I care about others. I have lots of friends. I love to learn. I make myself too busy sometimes. Do those add up to part of my identity?
How would my friends describe me? Maybe I should ask them who I am and report back to you? Maybe you should be asking yourself the same?
