Who am I?

This weeks social studies TDT looks at identity and asks us to read a chapter of Woodward (2004) and look at the role it plays in our world today. So reading this, you might wonder who I am? Well I’m a university student, a Girlguide leader, a Manchester City fan, a blogger, British, a lover of all things chocolate and an avid baker. Already, just putting these identities out there puts me as being the same as some people and different from others, and this isn’t a bad thing. Furthermore, as a person I have changed over time. For example, I wasn’t always a university student and I won’t be one forever, at some point I’ll be able to add qualified teacher to my identities and this will put me in a whole other category. Identities change constantly, which adds to who we are as people.

I think it is important to be part of these categories because they identify my similarities in me, my friends, my family and my boyfriend. I love who I am and think more people should be confident about who they are. I have had to go through tough experiences, the death of my father and the bullying at school but these have formed who I am as a person and I can’t escape this. This doesn’t mean that I always think of myself in this way though. George Herbert Mead (Woodward, 2004, pg 11) suggests that we are who we are because of how others see us and I can certainly relate to this. Although I am quite a confident person in who I am, I will still stand at my wardrobe in the morning wondering what the most appropriate thing to wear that day will be so people don’t judge me. This is completely normal, and I know for a fact that I am not the only person to do this. I also hold my hand up and say that I started wearing make up because of what the girls at school used to say. I didn’t want to be the odd one out or to be judged for being different. Although now I wear make up for completely different reasons, I can look back now and think “oh how ridiculous”, but it just proves that Mead is correct by saying that I see myself by how others see me.

Identities change over history too. Although we have no idea what we would be like 100 years ago, we know that we would be a lot different because of the difference in society. If I think of myself, I might still be a Girlguide leader, but I most likely wouldn’t be a university student and certainly wouldn’t be a Manchester City fan. Technologies change constantly, look at the iphone, they bring out a new one every 5 minutes (so it feels) but they are always adding to it and that’s how I like to think of identities over history. As technologies grow so do identities and what people identify themselves as, change to move with the times.

So I hope reading this has made you learn a little about me and think about who you are as a person.  No two identities are the same but this is a great thing. Different identities are what makes the human race so incredible.  Just think how boring we would be if we were all the same..! As a teacher this is something I would always want to teach my children and not only can it relate to geography as a curricular area but also health and wellbeing. My job in Guiding as a peer educator is all about teaching girls to love themselves for who they are through the free being me resourse and I love going out to show the girls just how incredible they all are individually so I am sure as a teacher I will be passionate about this in the classroom too.

References

Woodward, K. (2004), Questioning Identity: Gender, Class, Ethnicity, Ch.1 Questions of Identity in London: Routledge [Online] Accessed on 4.5.17