How Does American Society Affect My Individual Identity?

In my lifetime, so far, I have been exposed to many people and things that have all contributed to shaping my individual identity. There are many events that led to the formation of my current and unique identity. I believe that my time as an adolescent has had the biggest impact on my current individuality because of the distinctive hobbies, aspirations, and perspectives that I have developed. The circumstances that I have been and will be presented with also force me to adapt and alter my identity. However, up to now, being a sixteen-year-old student in America has immensely impacted the things I do with my free time, my future dreams, and my views of the world, thus affecting my whole individual identity. The experiences that define my current identity include the many expectations of me, playing basketball, and being a determined student.
Throughout my life, especially in high school, I have had constant pressure to succeed and pursue an amazing career. Because my brother, who is eighteen, is not very bright in academics and my
parents’ strong desire for me to have a “comfortable” life due to their less-than-favorable life circumstances, I have been pressured to succeed. This pressure is not a bad thing, instead, I believe that it has greatly benefited me because it has kept me motivated to excel and focus on my current life and the future. This constant motivation has made me into a responsible person because I developed a habit of planning out the future which allows me to quickly overcome difficult problems and continue with my life. I am also encouraged to compete with my peers to set myself up for success in the future. I have learned many things from this sometimes overwhelming pressure, such as learning how to rely on myself to solve my own problems. These experiences have helped define my current identity by making me self reliant and motivated.
Basketball has greatly impacted my current identity in various ways. Basketball has always been a way for me to relax from all the stress of daily obligations. Playing basketball keeps me active and healthy which is important to sustaining my current lifestyle of relentless hard work. Basketball shapes my individuality in all the ways previously mentioned, however, the most important way in which basketball has shaped my identity is that it gave me opportunities to meet new people and make lifelong friends. One of my longest friendships originated in the basketball court of my elementary school. I have continued to play basketball non-competitively since then, and now I use it as a gateway to bond with new people and socialize with others. Basketball has significantly shaped my current identity and remains integral to my personality.
Being a high school student is an important part of my life, and it is currently what most of time and energy is devoted to. As a student who is always thinking about my future, I tend to dream big. One of my more realistic interests is science, which has become the subject I wish to pursue in college. However, my interests are not always so defined; in the past, I have had some eccentric ideas such as being an artist when the best I can draw is stick figures. Having these unconventional ambitions enabled me to test various potential career options and determine which one I should focus on in school. Taking these classes in school and understanding the topic broadened my perspective of the world and allowed me to understand what other people like, which has made me a more sociable and accepting person. Being a student also impacts my identity in other ways. I have learned to distribute my time efficiently over multiple subjects and meet deadlines which has made me into a more effective and responsible worker. These aspects of being a student have become part of my identity, and now I set high standards for myself regardless of the tasks.
My current identity has not only been affected by the expectations placed upon me, basketball, and school but by being part of American society.
American society immensely affects my current identity in various ways. The competitive nature of the American society, especially in the school system, has greatly increased the aspects of my life that already influenced my current identity such as expectations and college goals. These aspects alone positively shape my identity, but the added pressure by American society sometimes becomes exceedingly overwhelming. Through this experience I have learned how to see problems as opportunities. This perspective of problems, which resulted from the difficulties of the American society, has ultimately benefited me by giving me a problem-solving mentality whenever an obstacle arises. All these personal experiences and qualities have created my diligent nature and molded my current individual
identity.