Author: Hana Badrov, OŠ Gračani, Zagreb
Identity can mean something that we can choose, like our personality and our opinion, but it can also mean something that we cannot choose, like DNA.
Let’s talk first about the identity which we can choose. In this world, we must fight to find our own and real „I“. There are a lot of factors that influence our opinions and our personality.Those influences can be good or bad. They are very good if they only help us to find ourselves. As much as they can be good, they can also be very bad for us. They are bad if they impose something that we don’t agree with. For example, my friend loves football a lot. But there is a problem. All people around her are telling her that playing football is not for girls. Because of those bad influences she can not follow her dreams and she starts losing her own identity, I mean, personality.
A lot of other types of influences exist. Let me give you some examples. There are: religious influence, family influence, nationality influence, teachers’ influence etc.. On one hand, those influences exist, but on the other hand, they not exist. So question is… How is it possible? Let me explain.
1.Religious influence : With some of the ideas of church Christians agree and they live by the rules of the church. So… the church actually influences their lives, but with some of the ideas they all don’t agree with. Like divorce. Some of them think that it’ s quite OK if you are divorced, but some think that is not OK. I want to tell you that the religious influence is not 100%, like some other influences.
2. Family influence: parents tell us what is right and what is not right and they teach us basic moral believes, they choose what clothes we must wear when we are little children …But in the end, it appears that only we choose what we are going to think and what we are going to be. And, of course, what we are going to wear.That is the reason why the puberty exists. Puberty is the period when we are starting questioning everything what our parents told us during the years . In that time we start forming our personality and become adult people.
3. Nationality: In different countries there are different people, different behavior, differnt customs and different opinions , so the logical conclusion would be that your personality depends of your nationality. Still, it is also not true. Have you ever seen any two Croatians who raise their children in the same way? No, you haven’t.
4. Teachers’ influence: They definetely do not influence your identity, because teachers are here to teach you how to think, and not what to think.
Do you understand what I am trying to explain? The point is that I want you to understand that only YOU decide what is your opinion, what you want to be, and what you will be. Only you make your future. And nobody can influence on your identity unless you let him. No one can make something of you or change your personality if you do not want that. And before all plans for future, you must find yourself, your identitiy. It is the hardest thing of all. You must find an answer for the question: „Who am I?“ Your desicions and opinions which are changing during growing up shape your identitiy. And do not listen people who tell you that clothes make the man. It is not true. OK, it is good if you look well, but the clothes is not you. You are what you feel at the bottom of your heart. Because in the end you will find identitiy for which you have searched for a long time. Not under the ground, in the sky, in the water, in other people or somewhere else… You will find it in yourself. In your soul.
