Who are you?

[sobrique]

One of the questions I've been thinking about recently, is the evaluation of 'who are you'.
How would you answer, if confronted by it by someone you don't know, at ... some arbitrary social occasion (e.g. not one where you'd answer in terms of your relationship to the hosts, such as a wedding).

What makes you who you are? Me, I think I have a large part of that as being my job. I define a lot of who I am, by 'what I do', and so ... when faced with incipient redundancy, that leads me to question that gap a lot. On one hand, I guess.... well, I've always been quite career minded and ambitious. I define a lot of my 'worth' by that.

So ... well, how would _you_ define yourself? The answer obviously has many facets, but ... what's the biggest thing that makes you who you are?

Comments

[linamishima.livejournal.com]

What do you want?

[xarrion.livejournal.com]

Where are you going?

[jorune.livejournal.com]

Do you have anything worth living for?

[elrohana.livejournal.com]

How would I answer? I'd probably just say, "I'm Lyn, who are you" and wait for them to ask a less open question. HOw I define myself is a different thing - it also has to do with 'what I do' but actually not so much on the job front: I am owned by 3 cats and have a dog, I am a gardener, a wine-maker, a cook, and a general craft-worker. I am also Matt's partner, and I live role play at weekends. Oh, and I work for an MP.

[chess]

I gsve up thinking that individual things could define me a long time ago. There are quite a lot of things where if someone asked me 'are you a foo?' I would go 'yup' to. But I am, y'know, a person.

I have a range of interests and affiliations: a religion, a political party and various political leanings, a major hobby and several variations, some minor hobbies, a job, a degree, various aspects of a sexual identity, something of a cultural / geographical identity, an age, a race...

Which ones I bother mentioning / am likely to be asked about largely depends on context, but I think that list is currently approximately in order of their importance to me.

[syntheticbrain.livejournal.com]

Who am I? According to my stack exchange profile "N1 owner, Android evangelist, dabbler extraordinaire." My identity is rooted in books and tech and a broadly optimistic view of the future and humanity. Absorbing vast amounts of information/plot and ruminating on possibilities.

What do I do? Is oddly harder and I dislike giving the answer every time. Gave it recently when I properly met mister_jack the other day: "Manage IT change for the team that forecasts gas consumption. It's less interesting than it sounds."

There's a wee bit of tension between the two : )

And thank you, I think this may have helped me start thinking more seriously about what I want to do for work next.

[velvet-nothing.livejournal.com]

I don't think I *could* define myself, because I think the only way you can adequately explain yourself to somebody is to talk to them and spend time with them - lots and lots and lots. They always say that the key to a great novel is to 'show, not tell', and I think the same could be applied to letting somebody know you.

I hate it when people ask me to sum myself up (I was asked at a job interview not long ago a very broad question about who I was, and I was truly stumped). There's never an answer that can fully explain, and to give an 'overview' always feels somewhat trite and lacking. But for future interviews, I'd love to know what I 'should' say! Everything seemed either too much or not enough.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

This one I can answer - in part of my 'interviewing' training things, I've been briefed on 'interview technique'. Sum yourself up (or questions like that) are sort of intended to be an icebreaker, and to get you 'going'. They're looking for a summary of your career history, the sort of person you are, and why you're suitable for the job. A sales pitch, for why you're a good choice, as it were.

But the wider question still flummoxes me.

[anna-taylor.livejournal.com]

I always define myself as me. Its a question i hate people asking me as i am never sure what i should say. After going to school where i was bullied i have learn't never to tell people what i am truely like for fear of abuse so i never think of myself as having one thing that defines me.

However, recently i think what defines me is my family and friends network. They help support me in everything i do :)

[jorune.livejournal.com]

The biggest thing that makes me who I am is my faith in Christianity. Its beliefs and values guide my thoughts and actions and strengthens me through every day and night.

It's a focus to resolve, question and ponder the mysteries of life.

Edit : I think that in terms of biggest things there are many aspects to anyone's character and depending on the occasion some seem more obvious than others. I also believe that the phrase 'Life starts at 40' is meant to show that we are constantly learning and changing. By the time we reach 40 we have seen so much of life we have new found wisdom and so are able to make more informed choices. What seems so important at 20 or 30 may not seem so relevant. Embrace your age and enjoy it for the benefits it brings.

[purp1e-magic.livejournal.com]

The answer depends on context. In this case, the context is you, sobrique, asking me, purp1e_magic, who I am.

I am good person. I have convictions of what is good, and I try to live by those. I give all I can to the people around me, using my strengths and trying to work around and improve upon my weaknesses. I aim to bring pleasure, relieve burdens and teach by words, deeds and example. I know I fail at times, but I try to learn from my failures.

I am curious and love to challenge myself. I have a thirst for the learning of knowledge and skills. I am especially curious of human nature, and I study people in their similarities and differences over culture, time and belief. I enjoy making things with my creativity and imagination, especially things that bring enjoyment to others.

I am a mother, and try to use my time with my children to instil in them the values that I think will make them good people who use their gifts to the best of their ability to do good with their lives.

I am part of a mutually supportive marriage that gives me a strong foundation from which to flourish, and grounds me to a stable place.

I am an ideas person. I have many hundreds of interesting ideas about all manner of things. One of my weaknesses is the lack of dedicated follow-through.

I am a doer. I am always busy doing something. Whatever I do has a considered reason behind it, whether I sit down to watch a DVD, make a birthday present or fix a broken shelf.

That summarises me to some extent. I could go into more detail and tell you some of my beliefs and how I action them, but this covers the basics.

[forest-rose.livejournal.com]

I am very much defined by my job a lot of the time, to the point where my job title is used as a form of address at work (I don't think this happens in many jobs), as in 'Doctor, please come and take some blood/look at this X-ray/make the tea'. It's complicated by the fact that I don't really hold that title yet, not until next year when finals are over (I hope!) but a surprising number of people use it despite that fact.

If I'm defining myself, however, there's a lot more to it than that. I'm a Northern girl (and I know I'm not very far north, but in Nottingham if you're north of the Trent that's a big part of your identity), a musician, a geek, Jane's daughter, Alan's fiancée, a Warwick graduate, a jewellery-maker, and, yes, a medic.

I'm also a sleepy person, and I'm going to bed.