Take a second to just stop, and think about this: ‘How do I present myself to other people?’ A pretty easy question, right? Wrong. For every person we connect with, we present a different mask to them. To your boss, you present your professional mask, where they will know that you mean business and are willing to do what it takes to work for them. To your family, you present the family-love mask, the smiles and hugs of not seeing them “in forever” and the “look how big you’ve gotten” and the numerous other questions we are asked at the family reunions. Our masks are presented in ways that project the imagined aspects of ourselves to others to convey our relationships to them. But at what point do we stop and think “Is this who I really am? Is this who I want to be?” Most people won’t stop to ask these questions, but I, I ask myself these questions every day.
For years now, I have never been the true person I am inside, the facades I place in front of myself to be presentable to the people around me aren’t the true me I see in myself. To my family, I am mild-mannered and shy, a theatre major with no real plans after college. To my friends, I am loud, I tell bad jokes, and I am the person to talk to if you need to vent. To myself, I am…. Me. But, who am me?
I am labeled by my body, my lifestyle, my choices and my financial status. By these standards, I am a 19-year-old male of average body type. I am part of the LGBTQ+ community, I am for equality for all people, and I am a middle-class college student, most people will only recognize me by these points, unfortunately. And that is okay, to a point, but there is so much more to me than meets the eye, or what I will tell people face-to-face.
The pieces of me that no one really sees or knows about are the real pieces that make me who I am. Like the fact that I get lost in the music of the world, the rain on a tin roof amid a thunderstorm, the unrestrained laughter of someone full of life, the applause of an enthusiastic crowd, the words spoken between a loving couple, or the soul one has in their voice when they sing. I feel emotions deeply, and fall in love too fast. I want to dance in the rain, sing to the heavens, and paint the sky. I see the art and the love in the world that gets crushed by our own minds. We try to please others without first thinking of ourselves. The art we feel in our hearts is dampened by what we think others will judge us for.
So, when asked the question, “Who are you?” Reply with, “I am me.” Because the labels we create for ourselves will never capture who we REALLY are. Labels will never explain how we view ourselves. And words can only scrape the surface of what we see in our own world. Do not let someone who doesn’t know the truth inside of you to label who YOU are to yourself.
Who am me? I am me.
