Who I Am
I am a fairly average person. When presented with this
opportunity to write our final essay with the topic being “the story of my
body” I felt I was doomed from the start. Other people knew immediately what
the focus of their essay was, but I was stuck. I hadn’t had any profound
experiences that I could remember; my parents are still together after
thirty-two years of marriage, I lost my grandparents on my dad’s side two years
ago, but other than that haven’t experienced death of loved one’s, I haven’t
studied abroad, and I go to college and hour and a half away from my home. At
first I was frustrated with that being the case, but soon realized how silly
that was and felt extremely blessed for how fairly average my life is. I was
born into opportunities that I didn’t have to work for and my somewhat
sheltered life prevented me from traumatic experiences. It wasn’t only what I
have experienced, but also my appearances. I graduated from Upper Arlington, a
suburb outside of Columbus, Ohio (where I have lived my entire life), I’m
white, middle-class, stand about 5’4, have brown hair and brown eyes. I would
say I am pretty standard looking, no exotic or definitive features.
In a ready titled “The Story of My Body”, Judith Ortiz Cofer
reflects on her skin color and other features shaped her identity. She
discusses her Puerto Rican heritage and what it meant to have brown skin in the
United States. This creates a very engaging story. It presented a perspective that
was different from my own body. To me, it seemed as though writing the story of
your body meant you had to stand out from others in order to have a story to
tell. You had to be different in a way that affected your outcome in a
different way from others. I realized soon that this was an ignorant way to
think. Every person experiences life in a unique way and that every person has
a story to tell. I began to think that being in the majority average has
affected me in ways that I wasn’t aware of. Also, it isn’t only about the color
of a person’s skin, their ethnicity or heritage background that makes people
unique from others.
It’s easy to see how finding a definitive experience that
has shaped my identity may be somewhat challenging. I found it difficult to
find one specific thing that has contributed to shaping the person that I am
today. Instead, I came to realize that it was several different small
experiences (or lack there of) that have done so. To me, this concept of being
fairly average has shaped my development and my identity as it is today. This
could be for many reasons. First, it has provided me with opportunities that
may not have been present if circumstances were different. If I hadn’t been
born into a middle-class family with parents who knew the importance of an
education, I may not have been able to attend college. Even if that college is
in state and an hour plus away from my home, it’s still an opportunity I was
blessed with that so many others aren’t. By being away from home at college for
three years now I have learned how valuable it is. My high school graduates
students with about a ninety-nine percent college bound rate. Almost every
person who graduates goes on to pursue a college education. What I came to
realize after high school, which sounds completely ignorant, is that this isn’t
the case everywhere. To some, a college education isn’t even in the cards. My
averageness was all about perspective. In terms of where I am and where I have
been, I am average, but to where I’m not and where I haven’t I am an other. My
college experience has taught me many, many lessons. What we learn in the
classroom is important, but what we learn outside of the classroom is just as, possibly
more, valuable. In my case, I was able to escape a bubble, which altered my
entire way of thinking. It has changed my perspective on perspective, if you
will.
In one of our readings, titled “Unemployed Black Woman
Pretends to be White, Job Offers Suddenly Skyrocket”, a woman does just that.
An African American woman take the identity of a white female when applying for
jobs, after being unsuccessful applying as herself, and finds that her job
offers increase dramatically. Although this conveys a powerful message
suggesting the deep-rooted issues within our society, I thought it offered a
different insight. This example showed me how those who are privileged commonly
are unknowingly. This does not only have to be the case with race, but with
socioeconomic status, genetics, gender, etc. Those who are born the way that
they are do not know anything different from exactly that. I feel a personal
connection with this. Attending a high school where pursuing a college
education is more than common; I am able to see how blind we can be to our
privileges without knowing. It wasn’t until I pursued a different experience
that I was able to see what made me different from other people. I now see life
from a different perspective and for the better. The concept of being “average”
only holds meaning within your realm of experience. Who I am and how I perceive
others and myself has changed due to this significant experience.
My story has been impacted in other important ways. The
person I am hasn’t been shaped by merely one major experience, but more so by
experiencing one thing over a period of time; my family. I was always daddy’s
little girl. I can vividly remember as a very young girl sitting on my dad’s
shoulders, feeling like I could touch the sky. In reality I was only about 6
feet 5 inches in the air, but at that age it felt like I could see the world. I
always insisted on my dad picking me up and holding me wherever we went, to me
that was the safest place in the world. On our family beach vacations I was
absolutely terrified of sharks, which kept me from ever going into the ocean.
But only when my dad put me on a small raft and took me out through the waves
did I feel completely at ease. In fact, those are some of my fondest childhood
memories. Although it may be very common for young girls to view their fathers
this way, my dad has always been a symbol of strength and security for me. His
height definitely contributed to this safeness I felt whenever I was with him,
but he resembled that in a unique way that not all fathers do.
My dad has been a Columbus Police Officer for twenty-eight
years. He graduated from the academy just after my oldest brother, Christopher,
was born in 1988. For as long as my two brothers and I can remember my dad has
put on his uniform and gone to work. We always admired that in a very special way.
Most dad’s dress in their suit and tie in the morning to go to work, but ours
got dressed at nine at night to go to his. By the time we were waking up in the
morning to go to school he was coming back from a night on the job. It took me
a long time to truly understand what my dad did for a living. When I was young
I admired him the same way that all young kids admire policemen, firemen,
soldier, etc. They wore a special uniform and had shiny badge, something which
all children are drawn to. When you’re young you’re sheltered from the
realities of what these jobs entailed, and the older I got, the more aware I
became of what my dad faced on a daily basis.
Through the experience of my dad being a police officer, I
gained a different perspective on the world than my friends did. Growing up my
friends were free-spirited and adventurous. I played along with it, but I was
always a bit more cautious. The older I got, the more cautious I was. I was
painfully aware of the things that happened outside of our safe community. This
has played a major role in the development of who I am. The things that my dad
has experienced through his job have truly shaped my perceptions. Being the
daughter of a police officer gives you a perspective on things that not
everyone can see. Not only do I witness the hardships of life outside of my
sheltered suburban area, but I also see how that affects the people who witness
it. What my dad has seen experienced how I was raised. He was protective of me
in an effort to shelter me from the bad things he saw. This forced me to be
more cautious growing up than my peers.
Being more aware of the environment around me is a blessing
and a curse. It may have kept me form experiences that I’d have been freer to
otherwise, but it also may have saved me in other situations. Now that both of
my brothers have grown up to be police officers also, I have a deeper
appreciation for what they do. It is seldom known the risks that are made in
their job and I have become more aware of it by observing this through my
brothers. Although going through life scared is no way to live, I also believe
that going through life completely sheltered is not a way to live either. Who I
am and my strengths are because of who my family is.
Before writing this essay, I saw myself as ordinary.
Through the process of writing this paper I have made important discoveries.
Being a fairly average person is not a negative thing, but a blessing when put
into perspective. It’s not about your appearance or where you’re from that
makes an individual who they are, but how you perceive those things. Every individual
is unique in their own way and everyone has their own story.
Works Cited
Ortiz Cofer, Judith. "The Story of
My Body." Minding the Body; Women Writers on Body and Soul: 299-313. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
"Unemployed Black Woman Pretends
to be White, Job Offers Suddenly Skyrocket." . BizTechNews, 15 Nov. 2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. <http://www.techyville.com/2012/11/news/unemployed-black-woman-pretends-to-be-white-job-offers-suddenly-skyrocket/>.
No comments:
Post a Comment