learntoquestion ltq discussions

This project made me realize that the classmates I thought I knew for years actually had a much bigger story to tell. After looking at the vessels, I felt like I had a deeper understanding of customs and cultures that were unfamiliar to me. I was able to appreciate each unique identity and what they bring to our classroom. I noticed that the factors that made the most impact on our identities were music, friends, national origin, hobbies, and family. Some projects that stood out to me the most were those that used creative objects as the vessel, such as a vinyl, shoe, or baseball glove. It was really interesting to see how my classmates expressed themselves and what they value the most. As I reflect, I am grateful for this project because it allowed to take a step back and think about what I truly value in my life.

An interesting quote from The Complexity of Identity: "Who Am I" states, "Integrating one’s past, present, and future into a cohesive, unified sense of self is a complex task that begins in adolescence and continues for a lifetime.... The salience of particular aspects of our identity varies at different moments in our lives. The process of integrating the component parts of our self-definition is indeed a lifelong journey." This excerpt highlights how our identities are always changing as we grow, have new experiences, meet new people, and begin new life chapters. I think that having this diversity in the classroom will truly help to create valuable and insightful conversations as the year goes forward and as our identities continue to evolve.

Everyone's identity vessels were quite complex and deep and emotional. What I noticed as I say peoples identity vessels was that people's views of themselves were a lot more negative than what others thought of them. What shaped how others saw us seemed to be a far more glamorized version of what we thought of ourselves. This might have been because lots of our answers were from friends or because the truth is that people are far more worried about all their own faults and way less about others.

Everyone likes to think that the views that others have of them is malleable but if you piss off people enough, the perception that you have now may not matter. This came to light after I was still thinking of how a certain person was after I was reading their vessel and still judging them for their actions in sixie year. Society is very difficult to change because of the framing that our minds put around a person as stated in “The Complexity of Identity: Who Am I?” when it states that, “Integrating one’s past, present, and future into a cohesive, unified sense of self is a complex task that begins in adolescence and continues for a lifetime....” This shows that it can be difficult to change people's perception of you because it is such a complex task.

What I have learned about my peers through their identity vessels is that they all face many internal struggles that shape who they have been and how they currently are. Some of these vessels surprised me on how in-depth into their lives they got and how such simple objects could represent such complex and emotional meanings. They all relate to the concept of identity because all the things that were on the box shape who they are because even if they don't believe some of the stuff that others put upon them, that is part of their identity.

I believe that identities are complex but can also be relatively simplified, as seen with the Identity Vessel projects. With the projects, you're able to see what is basically an abridged version of a person's identity, a crash course in what they consider to be the most important facets of their personalities and identities (that they were willing to share). It also makes me wonder if people would be more inclined to share more about themselves if we didn't have to attach our names to our projects, things that someone wouldn't mind putting out into the world if they knew only the wind was listening. In short, the way that others perceive us and the way we perceive others is completely based on how we chose to present ourselves to society. Anything that we don't want people to know, we hide and vice versa. I think that something that plays a factor in what shapes the way we see ourselves and the way others see us is what we think would have us accepted by society the most, or what would make us more likely to be liked. Our identities are extremely malleable, they evolve into something new and revert back to previous iterations of ourselves all the time. Which is corroborated by Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum when she goes on to say that "Integrating one’s past, present, and future into a cohesive, unified sense of self is a complex task that begins in adolescence and continues for a lifetime."

As we learn about ourselves and how we want to fit into social structure of the world, we adjust ourselves as we see fit to do so. To either be as authentic as possible or to just be accepted as part of the crowd. That is something that I noticed while looking through my peers' projects: the more 'socially acceptable' or more superficial aspects of their identity were put on the outside/how others view me side of their project while the 'embarrassing' or details holding deeper, emotional meanings were on the inside/how I view myself side. The parts of their identities that would make it easier for them to belong to a certain group were readily displayed on the outside and the deeper, complex pieces were kept inside. Maybe because those details would be harder to find a group to bond and connect with without putting in any effort. When I looked at some of my peers' identity vessels, I often found myself connecting to people I've never talked to by pure shared feelings and experiences. Learning these things help to to solidify my own sense of self as it made me feel less alone, that my experiences didn't have to be only my own to navigate through. It also helped me realize that while identities are complex and distinctive, that doesn't mean they can't intersect and intertwine through shared aspects of life.

We have been constructing identity projects since elementary school, and it is reasonable to assume the way we saw ourselves 5 years ago is different from the way we view ourselves now. Over the years, we have been faced with the simple, yet complex question of “Who am I?”. Identity is an abstract concept, rather than concrete because it is fluid and changes as we grow older and learn more about ourselves. In one of my peer’s Identity Vessel, she mentioned how the way others see her has also shaped the way she sees herself as a person. People seeing her as an outgoing and bubbly person influenced how she saw her personality. However, there appeared to be a pattern with many peers’ Identity Vessels: the way others perceived them was contrary to the way they thought of themselves. As much as we hate to believe it, we crave the feeling of being accepted by others, especially in a community or society where everyone is unique. This pressure to feel accepted can sometimes lead to conforming to a group even if their beliefs or actions go against what you had previously stood for. As Tatum echoes the questions of “Who do my parents say I am? Who do my peers say I am? What message is reflected back to me in the faces and voices of my teachers, my neighbors, store clerks? What do I learn from the media about myself? How am I represented in the cultural images around me? Or am I missing from the picture altogether?” (The Complexity of Identity: Who am I? 1), this represents the fear we have of how people view us, whether it be someone close to us or simply a stranger. Identity is not just who we are as individuals, but who we are to others. Adding to “fridakahlo216”’s idea on how humans have a natural desire to be accepted by others, this tendency increases one’s likelihood to conform to societal norms. Furthermore resulting in an “Us vs. Them” society, where we live by the notion that being part of the “Us” group is the only way we can appear accepted.

Identity is not just our sense of who we are individually, but also who we are as members of our social groups. The common factors that either distinguish or integrate our identities with others include race, gender, and/or religion. However, our identity is much more than this; It can be from how we act around our certain groups or our different life experiences that may have caused us to see the world and others through different lenses. It is not easy to understand ourselves, as it can be a vulnerable process to truly realise how our actions, whether good or bad, shape who we have grown to be. Some may believe that one small infraction permanently labels them as a bad person, whereas others might not be as affected by this. As previously learned in Arson’s The Social Animal, an individual with lower self-esteem is less likely to be affected by a lousy action because they don’t hold themselves to high standards, causing them to be indifferent towards the way they live their life. Finding your identity is a journey that is certainly going to change with every problem, decision, or person you encounter. More importantly, no one knows your true identity more than yourself, even if who you are seems hard to come to terms with at first.

Everyone has an extremely complex and different identity from others even if they don't realize it. Some people keep many parts of their identity from others, and some consider themselves an open book, but there will always be things we do not know about one another. We might judge other people based on only what we know of them even though that isn't a fair judgment. However we will often judge ourselves based on everything we know about ourselves and maybe even comparing ourselves to others. When looking at my peers' identity vessels, I saw how I may have misjudged some people from only what I knew about them and I learned so much more about friends that I considered close that I thought I knew everything about. Our identities have been limited from what society has led us to believe can be a part of our identities. I think this quote from "Who Am I?" by Daniel Tatum does a good job voicing the complexity of ourselves; "This "looking glass self" is not a flat one-dimensional reflection, but multidimensional.". There were many things in my peers' identity boxes that I did notice connected many of us in different ways but there was also a substantial amount of unique parts of peoples boxes that were unlike anyone else. These differences could be something very small for some people, like a unique sport that they play, and others it was a place they are from that no one else was from. All of these differences are necessary for us all to thrive and enjoy being individuals.

Our individual identities are never-endingly complex. If someone asked me the question, “Who am I?”, the first thing I would say would be my name and my pronouns. If someone asked me that question to get to know me more in depth, I wouldn’t know where to start. There are so many different parts of me that I quickly associate with being myself. Even some distant traits that I associate with myself as well. It’s such a broad question that can be answered in various different ways depending on the context of your situation. Maybe you’re applying to be on the tennis team and you have to describe who you are and why your traits would be a good fit for the team. Or maybe you’re applying to be a club officer. Maybe, even, you’re getting interviewed for the college process and colleges are wondering -- why you? What makes you so different from others? There are so many different types of factors that might shape either how others perceive us or how we perceive ourselves. The way we grow up factors into our identities, where we’re from, how others see us, how we want ourselves to be seen, experiences that we’ve gone through in life, the growth that comes with age, etc. In terms of what shapes how others perceive us, it is through our experiences and things that we go through everyday that help shape how others might perceive us. Most of these might be found in simple body language, habits, or actions. This is slightly different from how you might perceive yourself. For me, the way people see me shapes how I see myself because if others see me in a good light I will also see myself in a good light. This is emphasized in the article by Beverly Daniel Tatum as well, when he states how “The parts of our identity that do capture our attention are those that other people notice, and that reflect back to us.” If others notice a certain trait about you, it will be echoed in your mind for a long time and most likely be something that you will identify yourself with for a long period of time. However for some, how others see themselves isn’t the same. These things were also reflected in the vessels that were made as well. For example, there were a few people that mentioned how there were things that they didn't expect to hear from peers or family that surprised them and how it helped being able to hear how everyone felt about them as a person. Hearing this was interesting for me because it's such a different experience from how I felt when I was doing my vessel and a lot of people went so in depth with their identity and the layers of it. From important family members, friends, or people in their lives, to their passions, their favorite hobbies, all the way down to the traits they seem to see in themselves, whether that correlate with how others see them or not. In addition, from the vessels it seems that a lot of people tend to notice certain traits about others but not as often notice certain things that they feel passionate about most of the time or hobbies which is a huge part of identity.

Personally, I don't think that my identity is that complex, although I do have numerous aspects that some people, including myself, see. Personal experiences and people's opinions of you shape how you express yourself, which then alters how other people see you and how you see yourself. I think that identity is very malleable because there are personal experiences that could change a person forever, or even how people perceive you could change your identity since you could change yourself to fit in with what people want out of you. Society today doesn't really limit our ability to change and grow as human beings, but there are some social norms that society expects humans to follow, and they do, whether or not they agree with it. Our individual identities can dictate what things we like or what we don't like, like hobbies or keen interests. Our identities also impact who we surround ourselves with since we are most likely to be around people like ourselves or vice versa. There were a few vessels that I found interesting since the way people perceived themselves was creative. There was one that used the concept of being two-faced but in a good way. She used one side for her personal conception vs. her external perception, and I found it very interesting. There was another that was a lampshade, and that caused me to interpret their internal perception as more warm and welcoming, almost home-like. Looking at everyone's vessel, I understood that the way people perceive themselves is always going to be quite different from how people perceive themselves, and that is what makes us human.

Our individual identities are all incredibly complex and different. Even people who may have the exact same background can have entirely different experiences and grow up to have different beliefs, morals, priorities etc. There is also a complete difference between how people view themselves, and how they think others view them. I, and many other people it seemed like used a lot of academics to describe how people see them. Many people also used if they were quiet or loud, extroverted or introverted as the first thing that others see. I do think identities are malleable, and for many people in five, ten years they would look at their own boxes and see an entirely different person. society may limit our abilities to grow and change because it likes to set us in boxes, and it is hard to start something new or join a new group the older you get. However, I think the inside of the box at least will always continue to change and shift due to environment and priorities. Our identities probably impact our personal and social choices because we are set into categories and groups based on what we like, what we don't and then society tells us how we are supposed to behave or what else we must like/dislike based on that. for example, an introvert must be quiet, or someone who is a fan of this sports team must automatically dislike another. This is similar to both our discussions in class and the readings, showing how people change their opinions to fit with the group, and how they want to fit in with certain "cliques", or in groups. This means people will probably limit what they like or dislike, and that people can only be in one or another group, not both. Our identities are all connected and shape each other, they are how we form our own identities in both good and bad ways. I saw in other people's identity boxes that certain things went together, that people who were quiet on the outside had more media on the inside, things like music, books and tv shows. People who were louder and more extroverted on the outside were more likely to have their friends and family on the inside. I think it is interesting how even though people had different things, such as religions or family or hobbies, it was always the same categories that people feel are socially acceptable to be a part of, to have some form of connection to. I really liked seeing all the boxes and learning who was similar to me, and in the same "groups" and who wasn't.

When I think about identity, I think about people's fundamental ideas. Their likes, dislikes, opinions of right and wrong, and general interests. I don't think that any of these fundamental things about you can be changed. Some people may say that you grow to share the interests of the people around you, but I think this is just an example of social conformity. It doesn't matter who you are with, you will always change based on who you are around. While you may think that your identity changes because of this, it is just the identity that people see that changes, not your core identity. As we learned in class, we see us's and we see them's, and I think that what we typically do in this situation is group all the them's as having the same identity, which is what a lot of people put on the outside of their identity vessel. On the outside of my box, I put things that people saw not only me as but my entire group of friends. Some people might think that the identity of their group might affect ones personal identity, but I believe that people confuse one's identity for social conformity, You conform to the identities of your friends, but your identity is fundamentally the same.

I believe our personal identities are much more complex than they seem at face value. It is human nature to make a split impression about the identities and personalities of the people around us, but people are always so much more complex than they appear. This is something I always thought about for myself, but an idea which was reinforced many times over by the identity vessels I saw. Many were by people I don't know very well, and it was incredibly eye opening to see a glimpse of what makes them the person they are. I was especially surprised to see aspects of my own experience reflected in identity vessels of people I'd never met, or simply I don't know as well. It really made me think about how much more similar I am, how similar we all are, to one another.

The complexity of the self is further illustrated by Tatum's article The Complexity of Identity: “Who Am I?”. Something which especially stood out to me was the idea of how everyone's identity is their combination of their past, present and future, all coming together. the complex process of the formation of the Identity, according to the article, is one which starts in early childhood and continues on for the remainder of ones life.

I believe that our identities as individuals are pretty complex themselves as we have different backgrounds, religions, politics, thoughts, etc. Somehow, though, these different aspects of our identity all fit into our one singular individual selves, which I find to be very amazing. I think that the way we see ourselves is in part influenced by how others perceive us as Beverly Daniel Tatum says “The answer depends in large part on who the world around me says I am” as well as we are easily influenced by the ideas of others. I think that it is quite possible for our identity to change as we may change our ideas, move to a new neighborhood, or perhaps feel differently about our sexuality, among other different ways that we could change. However, what I don’t think is possible to change is one’s ethnicity, as that is how you are born and it is an immoveable piece of the puzzle that is one’s identity. I think that, for many, especially extroverts, their personal and social identities are practically interconnected as they are very social and like to share their ideas and beliefs. Additionally, I think that we may try to separate the two identities just to make it easier for ourselves to understand ourselves better. For a couple of my peers, I learned a lot more about their personal struggles that they may not find comfortable in sharing with others. I think that this is due to the fact that they might not feel like they would be accepted by their peers or may believe that their peers would view them in a different light. I believe that this is also common in many adults as they think that they have to be great and “living their best life” despite them not actually having the “best of lives”, just to impress their coworkers, some of whom may care less about them.