Identification

There are many ways to identify a person.  Your place of work usually issues some sort of ID card, most folks get driver licenses, upon birth we all get a birth certificate and generally a social security card.  Any time I apply for a job, I have to produce these documents to prove I am in fact who I say I am.  Each of these cards is filled with a certain set of information about me.  Name, address, position I hold, sometimes a picture, date of birth, height, weight, all different facts that explain in a small way who I am.  I wear a bracelet with my personal information when I run, so if something happens, folks know who I am.

Each of these represent a superficial way for someone else to identify me, but none of these traits are as important as how I identify myself.  There are a plethora of ways that I do so, ranging from my intellectual pursuits to my hobbies and the people I spend my time with.  Sometimes life pushes us to identify ourselves with a group of people with whom we would not ordinarily be associated.  This can be both bad and good.  I've spent the last semester identified primarily as a student teacher to a group of high school students, which has been an interesting mix of pleasant and frustrating.  Other times, folks are pigeonholed based on a single physical characteristic that misrepresents who they really are.

One of the difficult things in life is striking a balance among all of the groups and traits I identify with.  Running is a stupendous stress buster and physical challenge, but if I give all my time to it, I will more than likely be injured and will lack time to pursue other interests.  If I only read for pleasure, I will get to experience fantastic stories and see the world through others' eyes, but I won't learn anything that I can use to sustain my physical life.  As much as I want my students to succeed, I cannot spend all my time for them, or I won't have time to personally grow and learn.

Another tricky part of leading a happy and fulfilling life is finding ways to identify myself within my comfort zone but outside complacency.  I began my college career as a computer science major, but realized after two years that I would be miserable if I pursued that line of work to retirement.  Inspired by teachers in my life, I switched to mathematics teaching.  About a year ago, however, I began to become discouraged by the politics poisoning the atmosphere of public education.  I have tremendous respect and hope for the future, because I know there are still brave souls battling on the the face of negativity, but I again realized that my current trajectory would not end in my happiness.  A burgeoning love of the study of mathematics caused me to begin to research graduate schools, and after a year more of classes, mixed in with recommendation letters, statements of purpose, and one standardized test, I was accepted to Bowling Green State University graduate school for the purpose of studying mathematics.  They also offered me a position as a Teaching Assistant, which will feed my satisfaction from helping others to learn, and I have accepted.  Beginning July 1, I will be happy to identify as a BGSU Falcon!

And so my friends, how do you identify yourself?  How do you challenge and change that identity to continue an upwards path to happiness?  I know that in this human life I will never achieve complete satisfaction, but the joy is in the journey, I've heard.  Let's journey on!