The Things that Help Identify Oneself - Essay Example

The Things that Help Identify Oneself Self-identification is an aspect of human thinking process whichis as important as the fact of thinking itself. Every person is unique because of specific set of features and traits of character, appearance and mind peculiarities. There are also some things that give extra information about how an individual perceives and identifies him or herself which will be given below. Name. The person’s name is the thing which is the most pleasant one to hear. Hearing the name, the individual recalls his or her previous experience related to the previous mentioning of the name: childhood, being a schoolboy or a schoolgirl, university education and other stages of one’s life. This is also a reflection of the present moment related both to the individual’s ups and downs, and the name itself may be referred to as a factor influencing the course of life. All the names have their explanations of meaning: for example, the most obvious case – the name Victor origins from the Latin word “victor” which semantically means “the winner”. It is quite possible to say that my own name has something, many things to say in terms of my identification and self-perception, the way I see myself. Badr, the name which accompanies me in my life and with which I have already lived a quarter of a century, is not very widely spread among the men of our society today. It used to be the same when I was given this name. I can suggest that there are at least two reasons for my parents’ choice. Firstly, the end of the XX century was the time when, according to the information that I have learned (how else can I know it for sure if I was born then and could not do it physically?), people gave their children the names which were similar to be forgotten but which were widely used in the past and reminded the society of the previous fame, renowned compatriots and significant success of the nation. Secondly, and this reason is not less important than the above mentioned one, my parents were then, as well as they are now, keen on history and believe that it is every citizen’s duty to honor the famous achievements of the nation. Their favorite one is the battle of Badr, and there is no need to introduce this historically important and really breaking event for it has already been done by its effect on the Arabic world. The sound and spelling of this name redirects its perceiver to the Quran from which texts this name has reached the society and has been introduced into a not very wide use. The real childhood story of my life, however, shows very few similarities to what is written in the religious texts about the character under this name and the religious topic at all. I used to be a not very quiet boy, and the name I should have been given should be related to constant struggle against the others’ oppression, Anton, for example. There are, however, matches between my name and its features: it is believed that people named Badr are good at studies, and my education partially proves this. Different Worlds. These two words reflect the realms of the present day in which every individual lives, knowing or liking this or not, and which no one wants to accept as a fact in order not to injure their own internal harmony. Modern society has become a society of consumerism – people tend to judge the others based on material aspects of the individual’s life (possessions, property, capital amount, university graduated and so on) omitting anything related to the moral and spiritual sides – soul, compassion, readiness to help the others, and the non-material things people really need but do not practice. The fact that adds insult to injury is that modern world is subjected to an unbelievably high vulnerability to mass media influence – people are told what things to buy, what relations to build, how often to perform this or that action, how much money it is necessary and desirable to earn, that is, how to live, from the screens of monitors and newspapers pages. These data are reinforced by promotion of thee luxury culture – by means of paying excessive attention to business centers, skyscrapers, luxurious apartments, expensive cars, prestigious universities, heart-rending relations, and the outcome is that people believe this brainwash and alter their personal desires by the things imposed from the outside. I experience this every day I go to the university – I drive three blocks before I reach my destination, and the thing that catches the eye is the enormous quality of very high and very expensive-looking buildings resembling to the world-famous New York business centers. Unalienable things are, of course, million-value cars parked nearby and men in trendy suits made by the nation’s best tailors, wearing gold and jewelry everywhere it is possible. This is the world I see in the morning and the one which I am intended to see, because in the evening unpleasant things become known. The second world looks not that attractive: when all these well-off people go home, the guards also hide inside the guarded buildings, and the streets hospitably meet many homeless people who would feel unbelievably happy to live at least five per cent as good as the daytime inhabitants of the space-age skyscrapers. The fact which makes this world second is its oppression by the first one: it is not a surprise that there is too little care provided now to the categories of social risk, for example, thee mentioned homeless people, and the members of society, individuals, take care only about themselves. This is the world people shall not be aware of at all, for they may ask questions how this is possible in the most prosperous regions of cities and good business climate. Clothes. My personal life experience demonstrates that particular items of clothes may also influence the way people see themselves. I remember a Christmas present from my parents when I was seven years old. That day, which I now recall with the best feelings and sincerely regard this as one of the best childhood experience, I was presented with a blue shirt. It is nothing special when a person is gifted with an item of clothes; moreover, it is a well-known fact that children are not quite satisfied and happy to realize that Santa’s choice is to present clothes rather than the latest trends of toys and other things children like. The explanation I was really happy with the mentioned present was very simple: my father used to take on shirts every morning, and I, as most of the boys of my age, wanted to resemble to the father. The color that shirt had was an unusual one: it was a shimmering marine blue color which looked really as a sea wave. Every time I took this shirt on I imagined our family trip to the seaside, and in winter I was especially impatient and could not wait till summer. When summer came, I asked the parents every day when we at last should go to the seaside, and this was the only unpleasant thing related to this shirt because we made such trips relatively seldom. Geography. The place the person comes from is the first known geographical location and the best place ever visited within the course of life. My place of birth perfectly meets these criteria and is the first thing I remember when I am asked to tell something about my childhood. Jeddah is a port city which is relatively big from the nation perspective. This place is important to me not only because of the fact that I was born here, but also because I had good experience and learned many things here. I met my relatives and friends which was a rich social experience, and in my school I first felt what it was like to establish a relationship. The image of my home city is related to its primary business activity – sea transportation, as it is a port city. The big port cranes, numerous arriving and departing ships, lots of containers with logos of world-famous shipping lines printed on the walls were the things I saw most often in my childhood and which reasonably became the city image. The city has seen dramatic changes over the time, similarly to every place of the country. Being a small sea village, it has transformed into an important link of the state and the nation with the world when a state-of-the-art, high capacity sea port has been commissioned. It is obvious that the population quantity has increased because of the increase of the port-related job offer, and the city, as per the opinion of its oldest citizens, now looks almost ten times bigger than initially. My attitude towards this city has also changed: when I was a child, this was a real home and the thing always available, and when I left it to change my residence, similarly to most Americans (the Americans change their residence around 18 times a lifetime), I started missing it as nothing else in the world and realized what a home place means. (Moseley, Harris, 2011, 316). Weather. The most vivid impression I remember about the weather is a rainstorm I was caught by one day I was coming back home from school. I was morally relaxing from a hard studying day when a terrible wind and a heavy rain started. It was far from my home, and the best solution I found was to drop in at my classmate’s place. John let me in and offered a cup of hot tea which was a really necessary thing to get warm after the cold weather I was caught by. I do not like rain in any forms, and this was the case when I rapidly found a solution to escape from an unpleasant thing. This was the evidence of how important it is to think quickly and to make decisions which is a really necessary skill. Works Cited Moseley, A., Harris, J. Interactions: A Thematic Reader. Cengage Learning. 2011. Print. Read More