What are you?
What are you?
THE QUESTION
WHAT ARE YOU?
If I asked you that question, but you could only answer using one word - what would you say?
Would you think of your personality, your interests, or your dreams? Or would you think of labels like Black or white?
For many of us, this question is never just a question.
It becomes a feeling.
We are often asked to define ourselves through categories we did not create.
Black. White. Man. Woman. Outgoing. Quiet. Successful. Different.
Labels can help people understand parts of us, but they can also become boxes-reducing a full person into the easiest answer available.
Some parts of who we are exist between those answers.
They cannot be captured by one word.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ONE ANSWER DOES NOT FEEL COMPLETE?
BEYOND THE LABELS
The pressure does not always arrive through one dramatic moment.
Sometimes it appears through a question asked with too much curiosity.
An assumption made before you speak.
A space that asks you to choose one side when neither feels complete.
Over time, those small moments can leave you wondering where you belong. whether you are enough of one thing, or too much of another.
HAVE YOU EVER FELT PRESSURED TO SIMPLIFY WHO YOU ARE?
THE PRESSURE
UNIQUE OUTGOING OPTIMISTIC
UNIQUE OUTGOING OPTIMISTIC
AS A BIRACIAL INDIVIDUAL, "WHAT ARE YOU?" IS A QUESTION I HAVE BEEN ASKED MY ENTIRE LIFE.
WHY THIS QUESTION STAYED WITH ME
But people were rarely asking about my personality, my interests. or the person I was becoming. They wanted an answer that would make me easier to categorize.
For a long time, I did not give the question much thought. As I got older, I began to understand that the question was larger than my own experience.
It made me wonder how many people feel pressured to explain themselves through categories that never fully contained them.
YOUR TURN
If you could only use one word to describe your self, what would you say? Share your word anonymously and see what others have shared.
