To Know or To Become

Posted on October 19, 2019 by the Editor

By Amarachi Anike. Amarachi lives in Enugu, Nigeria. Please read her article and leave your thoughts and comments below.

I would like to know who I am because I want to live true to who I am. I would like to know who I am because to get to a formidable height, I have to know who it is that is ready to get there – I have to start from somewhere, permit me to call it the very fundamental step, “Knowing who I am”. But before I commence this exciting adventure of trying to find out who I am, I need to first ask myself why I quest to know. It will avert my wasting a crucial chunk of my time looking for who I am in places where I virtually stand less chance of finding the right answers I seek. Like I stated in the opening statement above, I would want to live true to who I am. Thus, knowing who I am will help me know if there is need for a change, which definitely there should be in the quest to attain near perfection.

Most of us might just have this notion, why is it that people keep lamenting on who am I? They may go ahead to chide, “Just give me a break! I’m tired of hearing a point that has been hashed out already”. The constant emphasis on this topic does no further thing than to prove to you how important this topic has become for one to have a complete and peaceful life. But I promise you that I am going to be a little bit different from others. So, just hang on and read on, you will get to discover a whole new thing that you may not have come across before.

Who am I? This legally portrays the quest for identity. The quest to know the person asking the question, “Who am I?” This quest just like any other quest tethers me to a particular disease called identity disease, which I am not so glad saying but it needs to be said, is really deadly and can terminate a life within seconds. However, it is this disease that makes me, the me, that quests to know. This “Who am I?” intimates me on the fact that there is only one me, that is not alike with any other person. Thus, proving that my identity is uniquely mine alone.

One of the things that a kid learns early in life are these words, I, my and mine not minding the real ownership and some other expressions that typically portray possession. They are quite resolute about having things they would call theirs. They would always utter, buy me this, and buy me that. When bought, they would colonize it not wanting to share with anybody. Whenever you try to share, the most prominent reply you would get is, “Is mine!” What causes this? It is the ego attached to that kid’s development that is responsible for this. The quest to be seen as an entity with respect and honour. They do this even without knowing it, but it is just a means through which they express themselves as an entity and answer the question, “Who am I?” This ego was described by Sigmund Freud as the seat of all natural thoughts and as well as the executive that controls governs and regulates the human personality. The main function of ego, he stated thus, to criticize, modify and to reject any irrational drive from any angle. But in kids, this function is yet to develop fully. Hence, their behaviour. It is this ego that prescribes who I am. How? You may have asked yourself now. Because it is the seat of all natural thoughts. Certainly, thoughts define who you are.

Each day of my life, before I started writing this piece, I stepped out into the street to be met by thousands of different faces, uniquely built. Before I walked a space of 10 yards, I would already have seen these faces, some smiling, some looking serious, others chattering away with their companions, then certain other faces looked mysterious. All enclosed in a hidden intent, which is terribly unpredictable. This intent am afraid to say is what makes the me that I am looking for.

The same routine kept happening everyday spurring me into wanting to know the reason for this uniqueness ascribed to those individual faces. However, I discovered that it is basically answered by who they are.

Has it ever occurred to you that at times you begin to wonder who you really are? Even country music projector, Don Williams professed it in a line embedded in the lyrics of his song, “I believe in you”. He said, “I am an ordinary man, sometimes I wonder who I am”. Ordinary, in the sense that he is but just a normal person who does not know but craves to know, even at that, he still doesn’t know. On very many occasions, when I am reading in a silent environment, where I hear nothing else but the buzzing of fresh air, flipping of pages being read and screeching of a pen in what seems to be an unending bout of writing; I drift away to a spot. Here, I visualize who I really am or would want to be. Sometimes I do this knowingly; most times I do it unknowingly. The quest to know who I am is a strong one, which has a role to play in my daily life. Please I absolutely crave your indulgence to drive my point between the use of you and I where necessary.

As you keep wondering, you are bound to stumble on to several opines. Someone tells you, you are this. Another proudly tells you with no sign of contemplation, you are that, and yet another friend deviates from what the previous ones said. Even the so-called enemies claim to know who you are, while the owner of the personality is left to brood and contemplate with regards to who he is. Could it be that you have a totality of what they said you are? Could it be that you are not or even most probably that you don’t know what to believe again about who you are. I can’t even really tell you who you are because I don’t know who you are. But I believe that it depends on what you believe in and who you would want to be. Pictures or rather paintings are created because they are thinkable, flexible to change in terms of re-coating from different angles to make better pictures, so is a personality created because it is thinkable.

In all, it seems very difficult to tell exactly who I am, but very easy to tell who I want to become. It is not about who you are, but who you want to be. It is not about what you are, but what you want to become. It is not about where you are currently, but about where you would want to be. As long as it is thinkable, then it is achievable. In my opinion, the main thing one should be concerned about in life and work is becoming someone you were not in the beginning.

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82 comments on “To Know or To Become”

  1. Ugwuodo Ugo on

    Striving to become what we dream of being – the perfect beings should be our purpose.
    Nice piece of writing… Keep it up

    Reply
  2. Anike Malcolm on

    Great write up. Finding who you’re is a fundamental step one must take in order to find meaning and purpose in life. Many people never really find out and they struggle and strive to find meaning in their existence. Your article is quite enlightening

    Reply
  3. Ruth chinecherem on

    this is a very good write up, it really gave me some relieve and inspiration
    I would love to read a write up of this kind a thousand times, cos it really enlighten me and also gave answers to some of my questions
    Keep it up dear

    Reply
  14. Chymé on

    I love this… I started asking myself this questions when life of a man began to happen to me.. I had let the kid in me know I’ve gone to find the man I long to be

    Reply
  17. Peter Edozie on

    When I listen to many option, it changes my mindset to ask myself WHO AM I?
    “As long as it is thinkable, then it is achievable. In my opinion, the main thing one should be concerned about in life and work is becoming someone you were not in the beginning.” The last sentence just answered it for me, so all we need is to be positive.

    Reply
  30. Francisca chy on

    Nice write up and keep keeping it up am glad you are actually doing this and I have always enjoy reading your write up cause it makes more sense and give a deep thought

    Reply
  37. Harsh vashist on

    Nice and good job done my you it’s provide us more information regarding this which you provide us .i hope you mention your stuss right this as we follow your articles.

    Reply
  57. Asep Mulyana on

    in our work we must follow the rules of the company, maybe in the company of close friends will become enemies. So we have to choose really friends

    Reply
  60. Daniel Achuke on

    I love the way you wrote your article starting with the title to know or to become, which one would it be. To know who you are is quite good but becoming what you wish to become is the best gift to oneself.

    Reply
  61. Silas Ayemere on

    Was very thoughtful of you to have put together this work. Really speaks volumes and speaks to my innerself to forget trying to know me but find out what I would really like to be.

    Reply
  64. Onyi on

    “As you keep wondering, you are bound to stumble on to several opines. Someone tells you, you are this. Another proudly tells you with no sign of contemplation, you are that, and yet another friend deviates from what the previous ones said. Even the so-called enemies claim to know who you are, while the owner of the personality is left to brood and contemplate with regards to who he is. Could it be that you have a totality of what they said you are? Could it be that you are not or even most probably that you don’t know what to believe again about who you are.”

    This line just says it all. It depicts the confusion in trying to find out who you are. Should we dwell on this confusion and forget about becoming that person we have always wanted to be.

    Great article. Great piece.

    Reply
  68. Edward on

    As long as it is thinkable, then it is achievable. In my opinion, the main thing one should be concerned about in life and work is becoming someone you were not in the beginning. Perfect. No line could have said it better. Kudos dear.

    Reply
  70. John on

    Your ability in trying to explain this is just lovely. The way the article was construed conveyed a clear case of someone who knew exactly what she was trying to portray.

    Reply
  71. Stan on

    Actually cool to become what you wish to become and forget about who you were cause in some cases you might not like who you were and you struggle to become who you wish to be. In other cases, you may like to improve on who you are by becoming like who you want to be. Everything is in your hands.

    Reply
  76. Success on

    The most constant thing in life is the room for change. You have to constantly keep evolving into what you were not before positively.

    Reply

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