What Shapes My Identity?

by curri58987@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg | Sep 22, 2018 | Grade 9, IGCSE Archive, Me, pse

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23rd September 2018
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES CLASS
What shapes my identity?

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Transcript:
It is known that what shapes our identity are the things around us, our upbringing, what we are exposed to as a child, and nature. Each of these things have a large impact on who we are as a person.

Our parents have values and identities too, and these things affect their parenting methods. For instance, if a parent has a perspective that free-will is possible, then they may encourage their children to acknowledge their desires and make decisions. My parents are very motivated people. They like to push themselves to greater heights, perspectively individualistic, and this has passed onto me. I have high standards for my work and I always want to present my best efforts. My parents are also very accepting people, and they treat me and my brother as individuals, capable of making our own decisions and having our own responsibilities. This has encouraged me and my brother to explore our own identities, regardless of what society thinks. My brother can explore his more feminine traits, and I would say that today he is a very gentle and affectionate person, as well as fun-loving and playful. This personality is only supported in my household, as my parents have a very collectivist perception of the idea of family. We all support each other.

My family has been to many different countries, all of which have different cultures that have influenced my brother and I. Living in Britain, an individualist society, has also contributed to making me more individualistic as a person. I always set personal goals and look for ways in which I can benefit from situations. But I haven’t lived in Britain my entire life, currently I’m in Singapore, and when I was younger I also spent two years in Hong Kong. I feel that Britain is my home(?), despite the fact that I feel integrated into Asian culture here, which makes me and my brother third-culture-kids. Living in so many places has taught me about different cultures and has shaped my perspective of the world, and has made me more adaptable to change. It has given me an uncertainty about my identity, since lots of different cultures have influenced my beliefs – Singapore has taught me about respect for the elderly, and helping those who are less fortunate through service, whereas London has taught me to always stay true to myself and persevere.

However, these countries have very different perspectives when it comes to gender. In London, private schools are segregated by sex, and the two sexes are rarely mixed. This means that I had very little perspective on the male gender until I came to Singapore and an international school. These two schools also have very different ideas on what it meant to be a girl. In the London private school, in the subject called ‘Design and Technology’, we learned to sew, to become the feminine stereotype, but in ‘DT’ here at UWC, I’m allowed to work with machines and saws and sandpaper, a whole new experience for me at the time. This changed my perception of gender, I no longer felt like I had to fit the stereotype. My gender naturally influences my identity, as it was determined biologically by genetics and also because I’ve felt like a girl my whole life – this was only enhanced by my school in London, with the ideas that girls shouldn’t play rugby, or be very good at maths.

But my school in London was harshly catholic, and very homophobic. My bisexuality confused me, even when I came to Singapore, though UWC is more accepting than British society. However, I feel like my bisexuality is an innate part of me, just a fact about me and my hormones. I feel like I can’t change this aspect of my identity, I’m deterministic about it. It’s just a part of me, like my gender, however this could be determined solely by nature and not as much by nurture. (There are still a lot of studies about this, though.)

So, all these things and more have shaped me into who I am, and I know that I will continue to discover more about myself in the future. Thank you.