Originally published on February 22, 2017
I turned 20 last week and in the typical cliché way, I
started thinking about me, myself, and I, who I am, and what makes me, me. I’m
entering my third decade of life, the time some people call “the best years of
your life” (my thoughts on statements like that will be a whole other article).
So now’s as good a time as any to take a long, hard look at myself and take
stock of who I am. I started doing this recently, especially when it comes to
my name.
You always hear that in high school, and especially in
college, you always have a chance to “start over” and “reinvent yourself”
during these new chapters of your life. I’m definitely not the same person I
was on my first day of high school or even my first day of college, and I
definitely changed for the better. I just didn’t go to extremes like some
people tend to do. One thing my mom said before I started high school always
stuck with me, “You can be Liz or Lizzie if you want.” If I wanted to, I could have
“changed my name”. Would that have changed my personality? Probably not. I’d
still be “me”.
I’ve noticed that since I started college people have taken
to calling me Liz, not because I ask them to, but for one of two reasons: 1.
Elizabeth is such a long name and it’s just quicker to shorten it, like most
names over two syllables, or 2. They know someone named Liz and are just used
to saying it. At first, there was a lot of, “Who’s Liz? Oh, me.” I never really
corrected them because it never bothered me, just confused me. I’m still me. I
do always make it a point to introduce myself as Elizabeth and write my name on
papers as Elizabeth. What people do with that information is up to them. I know
I’m still me.
I guess what I’m trying to say with all of this is you
should try to learn who you are, as a person, as an individual. There are many
parts that make up your overall identity. For some people, a big part of that
is their name. That’s not as true for me. The things that matter most in my
identity are what I do and how I do it, the biggest being music and writing.
It’s different for every person, and the sooner you figure out the most
important aspects of yourself, you can start living your life as your truest
self.
And that’s going to be my theme for the first year of my
twenties: to be true to myself, my truest self, whoever that is. Sticking to my
strengths, acknowledging my weaknesses, looking towards the future, building
from the past, and of course trying my hardest to enjoy the present. This is going
to be a fun ten years.
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