Who am I?

By Mary Ana Seline Angoluan

Who am I? Sounds like a song isn't it? A Christian song perhaps but this post is not a Christian post I'm afraid. This blog entry is about searching yourself within: to know your purpose, know yourself, and to know exactly who are you and what are you supposed to be doing here on earth.

As Marcus Aurelius said "A person who doesn't know their purpose in life doesn't know who they are or what the universe is.

Having no purpose is dreadful and terrifying as if your just living your day just to get by. As Benjamin Franklin quoted "Many men die at age 25, but aren’t buried until they’re 75.". It's like your just live day by day with the same routine, without higher purpose that will make sense out of your life.

According to Viktor Frankl the famous Psychologist who founded the Logotherapy "Life asks you the meaning of life by questioning you; you don’t ask life. It’s not what you expect from life, but what life expects from you."

But what exactly are we here for?

According to Morin 2022, there are few steps that you can do to at least help you know your purpose.

1. Take a second look at your Interests

If there is one thing that can help you understand yourself more is taking a look at your interests. These are simple signs of what you want to do and who you may be.

Your interests are the things that you enjoy doing. It is something that gives you peace and makes you feel productive by doing it. My friend started his Photography career by giving his photography interests a shot. He started doing it in his free time and then when people around him noticed his skills. He was hired by small organizations to take pictures. He then employed himself to take part time jobs as a Photographer and now he is signed with a big fashion company to take pictures of there models working full time.

Take a look at your interest and give them a shot. Who knows right?

2. Converge yourself to different people

One of the things that I think I should have done earlier in life is to be don't be afraid of starting talking to people. But it was legitimate fear though because we were taught by our parents not to talk to strangers when we were young.

But now you have the instincts and have an idea of boundaries. This is the time that you start that conversation with that person who is in front of you in line, or the person that reads the same book that you're interested in, or that person who is doing the same hobbies as you are.

Talking to strangers is a struggle to anyone but sometimes other people's view and insights help you understand what's yours and help you know yourself more.

3. Join groups that has positive impact

Connecting people nowadays is easy because of social media. You can randomly join a group and then start conversing. For you to know more about yourself join groups that has a positive impact. Or in simple terms those who speak positively and are positive about life. Please take note of the "Toxic Positivity" which I will explain in another post.

These groups can help you organize your thoughts, analyze what you really want and actually do who you want to become.

How would you know that you already found who you want to be and what you want to do the rest of your life?

Knowing who you are is a trial and error. Life is a journey, a mystery that only you can resolve. Knowing yourself is not an overnight thing. It requires deeper assessment of yourself. But you will know you who are and what you really want to do when the questions "Who am I?" finally stopped and you know that your contented already.