A change in environment could cause us to lose our identity to some extent. Everyone's identity is different to a certain extent due to our upbringing and physical appearance. A person's name for example would tell a lot about themselves. The culture and language they have been using and even the meaning to the name is also part of a person's identity. The little details and characteristics of a person influences a person's identity to a certain extent. Thus, how does one lose their identity when their environment changes? This intriguing question has no simple and definite answer. Furthermore, even though we are encouraged to be different and to be proud of who we are as individuals, society still has a whole list of social norms to abide to in order to be classified as 'normal.' There is a large grey area on how different we can be in order to behave socially appropriately and yet be able to display our uniqueness as an individual. Therefore, it is easy to lose our original identity and conform to a new identity when our environment changes. In this essay, I would like to address this issue and also discuss some opposing thoughts on it. Some food for thought would be, is it always a negative effect to losing our identity? Perhaps if we thought about our identity as a piece of soft clay being moulded through a series of events and even a change of environment, it could be thought as a positive situation.
A change in environment can definitely cause us to lose part of our identity. There are several instances in the study text Growing up Asian in Australia that shows us that it is easy to forget our roots. In one of the personal recounts, 'sticks and stones and such-like' was accounted by Sunil Badami who clearly emotes that being a minority allows others to feel more superior compared to them. Thus, Sunil experiences severe physical and verbal bullying . As he was one in three Indian students in school, he