My Identity

A jigsaw puzzle is what defines my current life; there are pieces that are connected but many that are yet to fit. Hence, if one was to ask me ‘who are you?’ my answer would be obscure. However, the current pieces that are connected are the experiences that have ultimately shaped my identity. Thus, the identity that I have is like a rigid rock in the ocean it may get eroded by the stormy sea, but it preserves its solid essence. Without a solid essence, without knowing who we really are by others, we endure as a faceless person in the crowd, invisible or worse – nonexistent.

In education, in society and in social media we are defined by numbers: a 3.7 GPA, a score of 1450 in SAT, 340 followers in Instagram. However, in reality these numbers
It was a holiday where I experienced a panorama shift: from the congested city of Manila to the quaint province of Quinapondan – both different places and both different experiences. During my stay in my dad’s place, Quinapondan, it did not feature much modern technology – for example, the use of Wi-Fi was not yet introduced. Nevertheless, it did not stop me to explore.

I exposed myself to the presence of nature, allowing the wild delight to bolt through me. Every single day, I would spend my time going out and doing numerous activities: I taught new games to the children there, I shared my stories to them and I would travel on short excursion by an auto rickshaw; a reverie that I did not want to escape. Quinapondan taught me that material possessions only bring temporary happiness because happiness is not about how much you have but rather it is how much you give and how much time you spend with your loved
However, experiencing the ‘worst’ can result a feeling of having an ice bucket of cold water to topple on top of you. Disappointment is an over-whelming emotion which tends to be imprinted into our memory: it is also a wake-up call for me. For example, when I first opened my SAT results, I was extremely disappointed at myself. I immediately asked myself, why did I get this score? Despite, my ‘hard work’ to achieve the score that I thought I deserved clearly did not reflect it.
However, I had to swallow my pride and be open-minded about it. I had to be resilient and simply take this as a learning point for me. All my disappointments promoted me to have a critical and personal reflection to myself. In this process, it allowed me to accept my disappointments and to never lose hope – that God has a ‘better plan’ for me.

All of these experiences contributed to who I am today. These experiences helped me to gain confidence that I can tackle shaky situations or take calculated decisions. Most importantly, it broadened my perspective on how I see myself and