My Identity Narrative Essay

Three years ago, I came to the realisation of something that continues to infuriate me to this day. I was at one of those monotonous, obligatory family gatherings that we’ve all experienced at some point in our lives, celebrating the engagement of my older cousin. I quickly took upon the role of the event photographer, after having been praised for my supposed artistic skill. Then, it dawned on me - none of my extended family had seen any of my artworks for at least the past 7 years. The last any of them had seen was likely the deformed stick-figure style I had embraced in my childhood. I had moved on long ago, creative writing becoming my preferred past-time, leaving behind for them an entirely inaccurate image of who I am. They really didn’t know me at all.

The way in which people retain older ideas about a person’s identity, truly believing they know them such as how my family does with me, is quite common. For example, Ray Lawler’s classic “Summer of the Seventeenth Doll” follows the continued struggle of Kathy, who continues to be treated as a child, labelled as “Bubba”. In these cases, it's understandable why they hold onto such ideas. People often hold onto the memories of
In a world dominated by social media, it is so easy to assume we know someone based on the pages they like on Tumblr, or perhaps the amount of friends they have on Facebook. When we present ourselves to the online world, it can create this dangerous collection of meaningless data about ourselves, rarely giving meaningful context to who we are. Although the world seems more connected than ever through this technological revolution, we couldn’t be more ill-informed and disconnected from who each other is than ever. Who we are as opposed to who we are online is completely idealistic, causing a rift between those who genuinely know us and those who think they