September 13, 2007 Archives

What specific details in your environment help you to define yourself? Choose something specific -- your Facebook profile, a favorite item of clothing, or something intangible, like a favorite word or a habit. For instance, I am a suburban father and husband. I also have identities as an English professor, a computer nerd, a Catholic, and a guy with thinning hair who's pushing forty. I couldn't possibly address every one of these identities in a single paragraph, but perhaps I could choose some specific sign of my identity -- like my minivan, or the growing number of hairs in my comb each morning -- and use that detail to help me make a specific point about one part of my identity.