Who or what am I?
 

who or what am i?

no, im not going through an identity crisis. But ive been tossing some thoughts through my head lately and wanted to see what people thought about their own identities.

as an australian of lebanese heritage, i find that when people ask me where im from, its hard to define in just one word or one nationality. i usually have to explain it to people..and i have to do this whenever i meet someone new.

how do i define myself? do i say im australian? am i lebanese? or do i just not define myself. i think everyone needs an identity, so option 3 is out of the question.

for me, im lebanese first and australian second. primarily because i could have been born anywhere.. i could have been born in Senegal..but id still be lebanese. i'll always be australian though and it is where i call home, and my love of australia is made even more solid now that i live overseas.

the order of what i am though doesnt bother me.. lebanese australian, or australian lebanese.. it doesnt really matter.

now i know that a lot of us here at tfp are of mixed ethnicities, so how do you define your nationality/heritage?

You are a terrorist! Now strap this bomb to your chest and make Allah proud.

*****

As being one that has a completly different hertage than my family, I identify myself with my birth location more than I do my family birth lines. I'm a southern boy for better or worse. It describes alot about me and where I'm from. Otherwise I have no fucking idea who I am.

He's a witch!
http://xenophilius.files.wordpress.c...tch-701441.jpg

When I have asked my parents about my heritage, where our family comes from, I get vague answers. "I think Russia or maybe Hungary". Because of this, I do not identify myself with any of them - I can't really, not knowing for sure what I am. Therefore, I am an American from New York.

It's funny... I've been thinking about this recently, but less about nationality.

I am a woman. Whether I like it or not, my physical form defines how people interact with me and percieve me in this world.

I am a botanist. My profession and my passion revolve around plants. My hobbies and my career stem from a love of those funny organisms that provide our oxygen and life.

I am an objectivist. I have goals. I have purpose. I have drive. I hope that others do as well.

I am a Catholic. The religious environment in which I feel most at home, with a focus on ceremony and academic rigor. I have been hooked since I learned Mendel was a monk.

I'm a Ridgeling. I was an integral part of the Ridge House cooperative in Berkeley, California for two years, and will always have a strong bond with housemates.

I'm a Californian. My parents were born in California, and so was I. The landscape of the California coast dominates my memories of childhood, and I know its biomes and flora more intimately than anywhere else in the world. I was raised with a deep appreciation for the natural world, spending weekends and holidays sleeping under the stars surrounded by nature. I have a deep and specific connection to the oak woodlands, chaparral, coastal strand, and the redwood forests.

I'm an American. I have lived my entire life in North America, and am a US Citizen.

I'm a Westerner. I live a Western lifestyle, and my heritage is Western as a mix of English / Irish / Scottish / French / German / Scandinavian / (+ one Native American ~1600's).

I'm an Earthling.

Is this like one of those annoying masturbatory MySpace surveys? We've had a few of these threads lately. Interesting read so far though.

...

I'm just another disposable white male chasing the dream we're all fed to keep us running on the wheel. Money and things (success, people).

My background is mundane, my education is basic, my understanding of the world has been shaped by books, TeeVee, and the military.

My existence is mostly spartan. I don't own art, use industrial shelving in my bedroom, and survive on a diet of tuna, peanut butter, and Cheerios.

I don't see god, I have no desire to reproduce, and zero motivation to work a boring-but-safe job for fifty years so I can retire into oblivion.

I'm a total sellout. I live largely for myself and get off on subsidizing my current partners because I didn't subsidize the better ones.

My goals are education, travel, and challenging experiences. I believe that we are what we do in both expertise and qualification.

...

How do you get away with comments like this on a regular basis? If I even thought something like that, I'd be thrown to the wolves or the TFP equiv.

Cause I'm completely full of shit? I'm pretty sure people take you more seriously than they take me. It's a double edged sword which gets me in trouble more times than I care to mention. This happens in real life too, people don't know how I can get away with the things I say. If dlish actually thought I was being serious, I'm sure I'll get a nice PM from a mod about it. Then edit, edit, edit.

Average human male living in the United States brainwashed by society to fulfill their expectations.

I identify as an American from the northeast. I have lived in several (not all, granted) regions of the country, and have never felt like I was truly home except here in the northeast. I can't even really explain it. :shrug:

In the interests of keeping to the original topic, I don't generally choose to define myself by heritage but if the subject comes up I say that I'm Canadian with Scottish heritage and leave it at that. This isn't really the entire truth -- my grandparents on my mother's side are Scottish immigrants, but my father's side has been in Canada long enough that nobody's really sure of where we come from. My surname seems to suggest either English or Irish heritage, and I remember hearing when I was a small lad that we might have an Irish background, but since I can't confirm it and don't really have anything to do with that side of my family anymore I just leave it out.

I have a lot more to say about who I am, and it has very little to do with where my family comes from or where I currently live. But since dlish specified ethnicity and nationality, I'll save that for another day.

While I can tell you a little about where my family comes from (Wales, England, Scotland, Canada) I don't tend to think of myself in those terms. I don't believe in any god but I don't define myself that way and it only comes up when someone asks or on the Intertubes.

I do think of myself as a Canadian but that's more something that relates to where I was raised and, now that I live abroad, a set of values and cultural associations that are quite foreign to where I currently live.

I suppose how I think about myself has a lot to do with the situation in which I am thinking about it, which is a round about way of saying, there isn't any one thing that I use as a crutch to define myself.

I was born south of the border, but never felt Ibelong there; did not look like them, and cloe family did not share cultural values wwith them (e.g no soccer, no ull fightin, no flamenco). Was told by te family fo some jewish heritage, and of course catalan. Come to America in th early 20. Had DNA analyzed discover mostly german with a dash of smerican indian. Found christianity not quiet my cookie. Try judaism but was not accepted. After many years ad some thinking this is what I am in order of importace:

human
female
American
parent
scientist

I guess I would just call myself an American...here in America I guess I'd call myself a New Englander or Mainer...when I lived in Maine I was a county boy (In Maine the whole northern 3rd of the State is one GIANT county and thus referred to as "the county"). I guess I'm a Tennessean or perhaps a Southerner now. Heritage itself never really seems to come into play, I don't think I've ever considered myself Welsh, English, German, Canadian or European nor would I ever describe myself as such unless it was a question specific to my families roots.

So yeah I guess I'd just call myself an American nothing else really works.

im not sure if any of you speak the language of their parents, but i speak arabic and english.

And while i consider english my stronger language because i grew up speaking and studying it throughout my life, i cant help but feel an attachment to my ethnic roots.

its interesting to note that even though some of you have other ethic roots and/or religions, you still choose to base your identity on the country that you live in. i guess it is easier for me to identify myself since i have a 100% lebanese ancestry. if you spoke your parents tongue, would it be more likely that you'd classify yourself by your ethinicity instead?

Not in my family's case.

My father was born in France during WWII, with a French mother and a Mexican father who was fighting for the US Army at the time. He grew up speaking French, Spanish and English having immigrated to the United States when he was still very young, though he didn't gain citizenship until he was in his 20's.

My mother was born in the United States, with her grandparents having immigrated at the turn of the century from Wales and the Netherlands. She grew up speaking Dutch and whatever gibberish they speak in Wales.

They both identify themselves by their nationality rather than their ethnicity for the simple fact that ethnicity isn't something one has any choice over. They made a conscious decision to become/remain Americans.

My parents both speak English and were born in the States, half my family has been here since at least the mid 18th century, the other half was living in Atlantic Canada until the early 20th century when they migrated across the border to the States and as far as I know they all spoke English.

I think the problem I have identifying with my ethnic roots is I just feel to far removed from them and there are too many to choose from (am I German or am I Welsh?). I would wager a good percentage of people in the States (and many other nations as well) feel the same way and find it easier to identify with nationality rather then ethnicity, religion or heritage. Although I have to wonder how many generations of ones family have to live in America to be considered ethnically American as opposed to a European, African or Asian living in America?

I'm not a history major, but does TFP see nationalism as the replacement for ethnic Sneetching or is merely another merit badge?

I've always found overt nationalism to be a bit over-the-top, simply b/c you can't control where you're born. I could have a huge amount of pride in the fact that I have two legs, also, b/c I was born with them, but to me it's more important to be identified by what I have done in my life, or where I am today.

So, I guess I'm a moderately well-traveled, college-educated SWM (stereotypical white male) working for a huge corporation, moving from state to state with my job, hoping to get promoted, etc. with a baby on the way.

On the language question, grandma taught us a few words of Scots, and we picked up a few more through osmosis, but I can't claim I ever spoke it fluently.

Of course, Scots somewhat blurs the line between language and dialect anyway -- though I'm not sure there are many Scotsmen who'd say so.

Mostly I'm posting this as a lead up to my Fun Fact of the Day:

Apparently, Wikipedia offers a Scots translation

Pride in your heritage? Maybe or maybe not. I can dig interest, though. This is where I come from, culturally, and I don't see any reason why I wouldn't want to know more about it. It's not like being a Scottish Canadian is some particular achievement, particularly a third gen Scottish Canadian with god only knows what else mixed in, but that doesn't mean I don't want to learn about it.

I really don't see my heritage as being important or intrinsic to who I am at all. I actually have a fairly complete genealogy but its more of an academic interest than a familial one. I just don't see how my ancestors have much if any bearing on me currently, except genetically. But that's a lot more detailed than the cultural definitions we're throwing around. Sure a culture like the French may have some genes in common but not enough to make a significant difference in who they are (in my opinion.)

You know this is interesting coming from you dlish, because as an 'aussie' I don't really have any identity. My Mum and her family immigrated to Australia not too long after WW2, and my Dad's side of the family was strongly Irish (like a lot of Australian Catholic families from that era).

I love Australia, it's the country I've been born and raised in. But I'm not a nationalistic person, and I used to identify more with the Eureka flag than I did with the Australian flag. I'm an Australian, but my nationality isn't my identity. Ever since I moved to Melbourne I've been accused of having an American / Canadian accent, but it's just because of the way I enunciate my words, so I've never really felt 'Australian' as such.

But don't get me wrong, deprive me of V8 super tourers, sausage rolls and meat pies, Tims Tams, Aussie Rules, and John Clarke and I'll start freaking out.

Having said that, bogan white trash can all die in a fire.

I am idyllic, idyllic I try.

I am stronger than enjoyable and weaker than wanted.

I am tired and at times feel broken (in the process of repair) but proud to have been able to work for and experience these scars and prouder still to have watched them heal.

I am nobody and everybody I know, and everywhere I go I meet you and you meet me and we are the same, just decorated differently.

I am here, wishing I was there, wishing I where here, just to know it, just to know you better, I wish I could have been you all, if only for a moment, so I could be a better me.

I am love, and I am lonely. I’ve known hate and I am happy to know its destructive potential, I am happier to leave hate behind, mostly, assuredly, I merely am just me.

Sometimes I don’t necessarily like who I am, but I always try to love me.

I am getting tired physically and yet just teething mentally, I am learning and loving life, always, always learning how to love life even through the moments I fear living it, each breathe is sweeter than the last even the ones that hurt, for now.

Love is my faith

Kindness and empathy, my mother

Non-violence defies my father

Peace is my heritage

Patience is my nature

Optimism is my friend

Education is my future

History reminds me of how great the future can be with education

Hope is the education of the children of our world

Time is my reality, which simply helps me recognize the importance of the above, and I am forever striving to enjoy each and every sunset be it cloudy or clear.

And then there is BEAUTY, Beauty is ours to share if we would simply open our eyes and see it, EVERYWHERE; it truly is everywhere….. May peace and beauty be with you all, deeply.

This IS who i am, and who i strive daily to be.

I am a desert rat by birth.

A German/Cherokee mutt blend is the only thing I know about our blood line. I know I am related to a man who worked with Edison on light bulb filaments and at a World Fair. My grams is an Okie, but we were never raised with any sort of traditions or culture.

I was raised for the first part of my life thinking that those who believed in this being named god were crazy (birth mother's second husband was a real nut job who "spoke in tongues"). From the age of 10 till about 14 I was Lutheran, now I am nothing. So religion has never been and identifying mark for me.

Mostly, I am someone who has spent most of my life feeling like I do not fit in anywhere. However, I am beginning to realize that I belong in my skin, I belong exactly where I am and I try not to question who I am.

I've never defined myself by nationality or heritage unless specifically questioned on it. In that case, I would state that I am primarily English, Irish, and Scottish, with a smidgeon of Dutch and Cherokee. None of those ancestries hold significance to me.

When prompted for a description of myself, I typically begin with education status, followed by activities and hobbies, and ending with personality traits and philosophical positions held. For example: Student at UCF, Psychology major, photographer, libertarian, inquisitive.

The description provided to others is strictly for their information, so I focus on what is objectively verifiable. I am more subjective in description when assessing myself alone and tend to ignore anything but traits, which are the only relative constants. I will graduate, my interest in photography waxes and wanes (as all interests do), and my philosophical positions are constantly refined based upon new evidence and thoughts. Traits such as inquisitiveness have always been firmly attached to my identity, as far as memory serves, and they are fully internalized.

My life is a fucked up little roller coaster of childhood and combat traumas haunting me on a daily basis, fucking with my mind and ruining damn near every chance I have to get close with other people on a long-term basis, manifesting itself in the body of a 20-something white guy working in a black strip club that lives alone and provides for himself, all by himself, who believes that there is no logical choice other than suicide, but refuses to kill himself because he has a moronically grand sense of pride.