Where is Your Identity?
In the fine words of George Bernard Shaw, “Imagination is the beginning of creation, you imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. Life is not about finding yourself, life is about creating yourself.” When I think about my everyday lifestyle and how I carry myself, I am in some way or another constantly thinking about my identity. One’s identity can mean a number of things to different people. In our society the intersections of our identities is what makes us unique. However society is structured by the means of categorization. Ultimately people are places into boxes based on whether they are a part of the privileged or marginalized groups. Within those groups, there are many layers composed of different identities such as race, ethnicity, social economic status, gender, sexual orientation, ability, body type, religion, etc. We continually place labels on those who do not fit into the socially constructed ideal standards and tend to view them in a negative aspect.
As I walk the beautiful streets of Stockholm I still find myself comparing and contrasting my identities to others that I see. While shopping, I found it to be a bit frustrating that I could not find many things that fit my body frame and I find myself saying “Oh this is made for the European body type, assuming to have long skinny legs, and long torsos.” I will admit, before I landed in Stockholm I was under the impression that everyone I see and meet would be tall, blonde haired, blue eyed people. I have found the opposite to be true here in Sweden. There is a mixture of all types of people coming from very different background with different perspectives of the world. I also thought it would be very hard to have conversations with the locals and that they would not understand or perceive me correctly.
After talking with natural born Swede’s they are polar opposites of what I thought to be true, many of them have a different ethnicity and are living in a multicultural environment. You never know a person’s story unless you give them the chance to share it. In class, we watched a Ted Talk entitled “The Danger of a Single Story.” In this talk the speaker Chimamanda points out the dangers of stereotypes by saying “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” I really appreciated this TedTalk because it opened my eyes to the ways in which we tend to become and remain closed minded. We make assumptions based on what we see on the surface and we judge based off that one assumption.
After completing the social identity profile I began to notice how salient certain parts of my identity were to me. Identifying myself as a young African American woman in the STEM fields are the major intersections that effect the way I view the world and the ways in which others view me. I once found it to be challenging and stressful to have to constantly prove that I was worthy and capable of being in the field that I am in regardless of my gender or my race. Over the years I have grown and developed and changed my ways of thinking. I realize that I had to humble myself and focus on developing as a leader for younger girls who will come after me. I have also had a few years to develop and try the various styles of leadership discussion in class.
This past week we were discussing leading with Emotional Intelligence as well as Kouzes and Posner's five practices. I have found innovative ways to incorporate some aspect of both theories of leadership. I first became self-aware of my own personal judgments and how that was detrimental to not only myself, but others as well. After I became aware of my own actions, I am now aware of the actions of those around me and how it effects people’s perceptions. I recognized that I had to change myself in order to help make a change in the world, and by doing so I demonstrated the idea of self-management. I started viewing the world through other lens and seeing how those who are different from me experience different hardships and struggles. From doing that I am not able to relate to others building stronger relationships and networking and connections based on my EI. From the five practices I tend to resonate and demonstrate two of the practices in my everyday lifestyle. Those two practices are “Model the Way” and “Inspire and Shared Vision.” I was always told as a child to lead by example and to do and be the best that I can be. To this day I am still putting my best foot forward and setting an example for those who will follow in my steps. As a peer mentor. I have shown my mentee what routes to go down mainly due to my experiences and how I was able to handle myself and get myself back on the track I needed be on. By doing this, I was able to help my mentee out of very stressful situations. My philosophy when working with others is to figure out our collective purpose, mission, direction and vision. I feel as though when people are working toward a common goal which was set by the group, things will get done. And if everyone is working towards something they believe in, the productivity and quality of their works will be prestigious. To me, it develops a stronger. more cohesive group dynamic.
While my time here in Sweden is vastly coming to an end I plan to explore as much as I can, continue to learn more from directly trying to talk and relate to the Swedish students and open my mind to new perspectives and learn as much as I can while I can. By doing so, I think it will continue to help mold me and shape the way I view the world and how my identities will be perceived.
