Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Who am I?

On the surface one might say that I’m outgoing, intelligent, confident, energetic and opinionated, but they would be wrong. It’s easy to tell I’m all of those things, but they are states of being, states of mind, and descriptive words. Being outgoing, confident, and energetic is what I am, not who I am.
People look at other people, see them for what they are, and make opinions of them. It’s as if they were looking at a painting, regardless of whether you like the painting your looking at or not, your opinion is formed by projecting your past and your emotions onto a picture and interpreting it as such. Take the Mona Lisa for instance, some people look at the woman and believe she is smiling, others see her frowning, and others still see her as doing neither or both at the same time. The same way people look at different people and interpret them in different ways. If you ask one person I may be a happy person, confident and easy to get along with; ask another person and I may be a cocky, demanding persona, bent on getting things my way. Perspective determines who other people think that we are, but even then who other people believe we are may not be in actuality who we are.
Stereotyping is a way of categorizing new people in ways that makes them easy to understand, but my experiences show that no one is exactly what they seem, and nothing in life is ever easy. Knowing information is entirely useless without the learning process. Learning teaches practical application, without it all the information stored in your brain is simply taking up space. If I can teach someone something that may in fact, help him or her in the future, I would invite him or her to ‘know’ everything they can about me. However, if they are disinclined to learn and simply wish to know, I’m content to remain a mystery.
If I had my way, stereotypes would be obliterated and people as a whole would not be judged by society, but by those appointed to such positions in the government. I choose the qualities I possess, I let other people choose which of these qualities they may judge me by. Some people may say that honesty is the best quality, but I freely admit to being honest only for the fact that lies will never posses the bittersweet sense of injustice and irony that the truth frequently possesses. Others may see determination as a great quality of man, but I also admit that I’m determined only for the foolhardy dream of never admitting defeat. My characteristics are obvious, how you interpret them decides how you will interpret me.
Many people believe who you are defines what you do; I believe they’re mixed up. Everyday you are faced the decisions and choices, different paths lay themselves out before you and you must choose which one to take. In my opinion what you do defines who you are, and I’m still being defined.

2 comments:

Hannah said...

definition of erin: beautiful

(and i don't mean the outside kind of beauty.)

Roberto Lerma said...

Way to put it in perspective. Seriously. It would be great if everyone had thoughts like this at least every once in a while. Erin is great!

Love,
Berto