I know, but stay with me.

"Who am I?" is one of the hardest questions to answer, and is a philosopher's most delightful question to tackle. Philosophers give the rest of the world an array of abstract answers, and after thinking about identity long enough, all that is given are more questions. That seems reasonable, though, because the question is fairly vague. For example, which person is “who?” Of course we are referring to the self, but is it the person from today? Maybe as a child? Twenty years into the future? When’s “am”? Is it this year? Today? This hour, or minute, or second? What part is “I”? The body? The brain? The emotions? Some combination of the three?

I've always hated being told to be myself. The reasoning for this is fairly simple: "yourself" is defined based on the world around you. For example: when I am talking to my best friend, I am empathetic, humorous, and usually enjoy engaging in some ridiculous excuse for a conversation. When I am performing, I am extroverted, crazy, funny, and overly friendly. When I am with my parents, I am calm, caring, and kind. When I am in a big social setting, I am introverted and secluded.

Some of those terms contradict each other. Calm and crazy? Extroverted and introverted? How is it possible to be both? Well I'm not both, at least not at the same time. I portray different personas, the fancy term is self-schemas, depending on what situation I am in. It is like having a wide array of alter egos.

It is important to note, however, that all of these traits are in relation to the people that I am interacting with, respect for my parents, love for my friends, energy of the crowd. My question is simple, if you take away all of the interactions, and it is just you, who are you? With nothing to influence you, except you. It is near impossible to answer.

There are two types of properties for explaining identity: accidental and essential. AccidentalProperties are traits that can be taken away from an object without making it a different thing. If one lost their hair, they are still the same person. A dog without a tail is still a dog, a tree without its leaves is still a tree. Then there are Essential Properties, which are core elements needed for a thing to be itself. Our sense of identity must be our essential property, which is a lot harder to find. For example, what is a tree’s essential property? Here’s how to discover it: it is fair to say that a notebook is not a tree. When does it stop being a tree? If that moment can be found, then its essential property is right there.

For humans, our goal is to find out what our essential property is. What is my essential property? Maybe, and this is quite comforting, there never has been a search for uniqueness, but in fact a search for that essential property in each of us.