In this day and age, it is very common for individuals to go through an identity crisis. These identity crises force them to reflect on themselves and decide to become a new person in an effort to gain a new identity. Individuals often live out this statement and find themselves moving in a new direction. The results can mean different things, considering that different people have varying definitions of “who they want to be”. But one thing is constantly true. The individual’s life will go in a new direction. And if done correctly, the individual will be satisfied with the new person they’ve become.
People realize they are in an identity crisis because humans are naturally social creatures. When humans interact with each other, they subconsciously want to know the type of person they are conversing with. They want to put a “label” on their acquaintance. So when one doesn’t know their label(or identity), they will see this lack of knowledge affect their interactions. A natural reaction to this is to question their identity, and in doing so, they begin the crisis. In the midst of an identity crisis, individuals may feel like they have no passion or goal in life. As a result, they question their role within society. In an effort to get rid of these thoughts and emotions, individuals focus on getting rid of their former self and commit to being a better person(in any way they may choose). However, they often struggle to commit to the statement and find themselves in a state of limbo. This “limbo” is a point in life where one is displeased or confused with their identity but is too unwilling to make a change and stay in confusion. This state of limbo can also happen because one doesn’t know how to evolve into who they want to be. However, when people are committed to becoming who they want to be, they can see results that will satisfy them. These results can mean being satisfied with their appearance, satisfied with their goals, and satisfied with their values. Satisfaction is a factor that will allow an individual to be aware of their passions and feel comfortable with their role in society. In truth, the individual’s life will go in a new direction if they are committed.
Over the last five years, I have lived this thesis statement, but only within the last two years have I been aware of it. In my early years, I was very comfortable in my own skin. Like many other children, I never felt pressured about who I was going to be, and never felt confused about who I was at that time. But as middle school began, I slowly became increasingly self conscious. Throughout sixth grade, I found myself focusing on my reflection in the mirror rather than brushing my teeth when I woke up. Throughout seventh grade, I reflected on my academic achievements. In eighth grade, I took time to think about my spirituality and how I was connected to my religious beliefs. By the end of those four years, I was a completely different person because I naturally grew. But I also reflected on the person I was(in different aspects of life), and put that person in the past. Fast forward to the second semester of ninth grade. I realized I had been, and still was, going through an identity crisis. At that time, I didn’t know who I was because I no longer was the little kid in elementary school, but I also wasn’t the same middle school teen. I wasn’t fond of my bad study habits I formed in high school, and I definitely wasn’t sure of who I was going to be. In response to this identity crisis, I consciously took strides to become a better person by creating goals and committing to them. There was a difference between my reaction to an identity crisis in high school. Instead of solely putting away my former self, I focused on improving myself. I am incredibly proud to say that I’ve left my identity crisis and am satisfied with the person I am today. However, I’m still doing my best to grow in all aspects of my life.
Dear Moyo,
I found your choice of theme to be very thoughtful. I feel like with the recent events going on, everybody has been struggling to grow and learn about who they are as a person. For that reason, I feel like your insight was commendable. I enjoyed the development your thoughts went through, and I especially enjoyed when you said: “As a result, they question their role within society. In an effort to get rid of these thoughts and emotions, individuals focus on getting rid of their former self and commit to being a better person (in any way they may choose).” I can relate with this a lot – as you said, humans are social creatures and the process of constant change that we as individuals go through very much lead to soul searching and a quest for inner understanding. Or as you aptly put it, an identity crisis.
A suggestion that I would make to improve your writing would be to elaborate further on the different ways an individual can go through an identity crisis. I would also suggest that you consider finding ways to tie your writing with the current events of today, for an even more relatable read.
Once again, an amazing piece of writing! Your piece was very emotionally charged and well thought out. I could truly sense you put a lot of thought and experience into the words you chose and the way you decided to present your writing. I really enjoyed reading this and I hope you have a good weekend.
Sincerely,
Aliyah
Dear Moyo,
I thoroughly enjoyed your piece on identity crisis, you had a very interesting take on how those who lack identity let it affect their interactions. I find this to be relatable because I have found myself thinking that I’m not interesting enough to make new friends and, as you said, I started to question who I was. I also found your use of limbo to be interesting because I too have been reluctant to change, finding more comfort in the known. Your use of images helped to contribute to your overall message and offered the reader a chance to visualize.
To improve, I suggest that you explain the types of goals you set to overcome your identity crisis. This would help the readers think of goals that they could set for themselves so that they can overcome their identity crisis.
This was an amazing piece of writing that, as I said before, thoroughly enjoyed reading. I am happy to hear that you are happy with the person that you have become and yet are still looking to grow; I would like to hear more about the types of goals that you had set for yourself.
Sincerely,
Matei
Dear Matei,
I appreciate your opinions on my writing and will take them into consideration for future blogs. I agree with your suggestion having to do with explaining the goals I made. When writing the blog, I added information about who I was before I changed. I think I felt that any other personal stories may take away from the main message, but in hindsight I’m now aware that it would’ve helped. In addition, I’m happy that you could relate to my ideas.
Sincerely,
Moyo
Dear Moyo,
Reading through your post, I was very impressed by how deep you dove into your prompt. You seem to have put a lot of thought and reason into your writing as well. I really liked a sentence of yours, “In the midst of an identity crisis, individuals may feel like they have no passion or goal in life.”. This is very true as I am able to relate to it. As a young adult being told to have my life already in plan, this sentence speaks to how I feel. Your blog really made me think about how I relate to this topic.
One thing I would suggest is to try to keep from digressing from your topic. I could tell that you had a lot of ideas about your prompt and were trying to fit them in but sometimes it seemed as though it was a different topic.
I really enjoyed your blog, it was insightful and thoughtful. Looking forward to your future post!
Sincerely,
Annabel
Salutations Moyo,
I really enjoyed your take on how identity crises affect individuals. When hearing about identity crises, there is usually such a negative stigma to not knowing who you are but the way that you took that idea and made it into something uplifting that promotes self-improvement rather than self-destruction was very inspiring to hear. As well as that, I really enjoyed the symbolism created with the mask motives throughout your blog because it adds to the nature of what it is to be human because you can never really know who someone is or even who you are because of the many masks you may put on to try to fit in. In addition, the formatting of your blog was very nice and simple to comprehend-thesis first, followed by connection to the Human Experience, then your personal connections. It was very streamlined to go through and gave your blog a very unified feel and complete feel to it.
Something that i would suggest for you to do is to add more sentence variety into your work. Most of your sentences are very short and concise but I think that you should add a bit more variety to try to emphasize certain sections or topics. As well, that would create a bit of an easier reading experience because some of your sentences felt very choppy and redundant.
Other than that, reading your thoughts and ideas was very interesting and I am excited to see what you will post later on throughout this semester!
Kind regards,
Rowan.
Dear Rowan,
I thank you for your comments on my blog! knowing that others are reading and thinking about what I write are always a motivator to improve. I also thank you for your suggestions! In the past, I have often felt afraid of run on sentences, but I think that fear hindered my writing. I appreciate you pointing this out. I will work on this in future blogs.
Kind regards,
Moyo
Dear Moyo,
I truly enjoyed reading your blog surrounding how an identity crisis can alter an individual. You seem to have a clear understanding of the impact an identity crisis has on one’s personality. I liked the part when you talked about how as you may be going through an identity crisis you would often lose your ambition in life. I feel like just about everyone can relate to this. When you can’t decide on what type of person you want to be in life it will be hard to decide on what goals you want to pursue in life
To improve in this blog post, I suggest elaborating more on the personal side. like describing the goals you set for yourself in order to become a better person. Overall this is a great piece of writing and I’m excited to see what you plan to write in our next blog post.
Sincerely,
Arnold.
Dear Arnold,
Thank you very much for your criticisms as well as your praise! I’m happy you enjoyed my writing.
In hindsight, I definitely can see what you mean when you say I could elaborate on my personal side. I think I talked about some points too much while others too little. Definitely something to work on!
I hope you read my future blogs!
Sincerely, Moyo