Life,Actually

I am a non-conformist who hates labels. Yes, i see the irony in that statement. I'm still trying to find a way to describe myself without using that phrase because, well, we have already established why. I hate labels and non-conformist on it's own is a label. Before i explain my attitude towards labels, I'd like to point out why i identify as a non-conformist, among other things. The first time i deliberated the word conformist was at a university information session. The recruitment officer asked me to stand up and tell everyone the story of how i came to apply to the school and what the application process was like because i had already been accepted to the university. I remember feeling like being picked on just ruined my chances of fitting in with these other kids. What should have made me proud instead made me feel different and wierd, something i really didn't want because i was already a loner. People tell me that i spoke well that day but honestly, i did t...

Someone said, "you don't find who you are, you create it." Which means that our identity is not merely a mark that was gifted to us at birth or a single characteristic that we might stumble upon one day. It is an accumulation of all the choices we've made and all the experiences we've had. It is made up of everything we are including our culture, our spirituality and our political ideologies. So many of us make the mistake of rooting our identity in one spot, mislead by the idea that you can only be one thing. But identity is fluid, it moves when we move, it grows when we grow and it changes when we change. As we work our way up in this world, we are constantly building on this identity, shifting and adjusting to make room for new things we have learnt, new places we have seen and connected with, and new people we have come to love. Identity cannot simply be a political affiliation, religion, gender or culture for these are not enough to build a whole life on. ...