Identity is My Middle Name

• Personal identity
• Gender identity
• Cyberidentity and fantasy identity
• Ethnic identity
• National identity
• Racial identity
• Regional identity
• Organizational identity

           We can all agree that identity is the fundamental part of our lives that shapes who we are. According to the book, "Identity represents an extremely important psychological component for the individual." (Samovar et al., 2016, page 246). As you may all see from the list of identity that I wrote, personal identity is the most important above all other identity. It may seem weird to people that I put personal identity over national identity or ethnicity/race identity but in my eyes even though our surrounding shapes our lives it's also our decision if we want to except those identity as part of our life. We, as an individual, still have our own consciousness to choose who we want to be in this world and what we want to be in the future.

            Each one of us in this world is different to one another, even though maybe where, when, or what we grew up with are similar to each other. For example, half of my life I grew up in Jakarta, Indonesia, without a doubt in the world, I grew up learning about Indonesia's culture, values, etc. just like my friend from university who is from Jakarta, Indonesia but it does not mean that both of us are the same person. The only similarity from our identity are our national identity and regional identity, she has her own different life experience compare to mine. And on top of that we have the power to be who we want to be in our own life so even if we did grow up in the same capital, neighbourhood or house we still won't be the same person; and that it alright, that's the beauty of personal identity.

            On my list the second most important identity is gender identity. To be honest I think that gender is also part of personal identity and just like what I explained before we as an individual can choose who we want to be and that include our gender. Gender is only a social construct that our society implement it unto us, but it does not mean that we have to follow society's rule of gender. Being who we want to be is much more important than what society tells us to be.  The third most important identity is cyberidentity and fantasy identity. Now adays, the internet is such a big part of our lives, "our lives increasingly focus around the Internet" according to samovar (Samovar et al., 2016, Page 255). That is not only the internet but also the fandom that we choose to part take, which is the fantasy identity. Both of these identity makes up half of who I am today and I can't even imagine who I would be without the internet and the fandom that I am in.

            Although those three identities are important to me but it does not mean that the other identity such us ethnicity, national, racial, regional and organization identity are not important. They are also important part of who I am and it does not invalid people who may think the opposite of me. I just like to highlight more on the personal identities than other identities.

References

Samovar, L. A., Porter, R. E., McDaniel, E. R., & Roy, C. S. (2016). Communication Between Cultures. Cengage Learning.