Reflection

I have to be honest, I still am not 100% sure what the purpose of this class is, but on wednesday, I came a little closer to fully understanding it. Now I know it is about the study of identity and all that jazz, but I'd have to agree with a part of my fellow blogger Miranda's post when I say that coming to terms with future insecurities seems to be a main theme of our class. We have had several different speakers, including Ambassador Quainton, that reinforced the idea that it will all be alright, you don't have to know what you want to do later. I am truly thankful to people who say this to me, because I've had so much of the opposite, especially recently, with all the worrying about my major and how all that will shake out. But seeing such an extremely successful diplomat who didn't even study diplomacy in school keeps me hopeful that even if I choose to study one thing, I can always devote my life to something completely different.

Well, maybe coming to terms with the idea that the true nature of identity is a fluid concept, as opposed to a fixed, unchanging facet of life IS the point of the class. Someone can say that they're "losing their identity", but really, you are you, no matter how much you change. You can be a waiter one day, and join the army the next day, and it all is absorbed into the enormous psyche we call our identity. I think it is important to make the distinction.

MBTI

As I'm sure everyone else is blogging, the MBTI really described me in a way that I couldn't believe. I've taken other supposed personality tests, but none that actually captured me in that way.

Although, I was very confused by the career choices that the test gave me. I mean, botanist? Dancer? Geologist? Exotic animal breeder? What an odd, arbitrary grouping of livelihoods. As interesting as all these careers seem, I have never really been interested in any of them. What did disturb me, however, is that my career field, international relations, is nowhere to be found. It may be that the MBTI career list is outdated, and the (relatively) new field of international relations is missing. Be that as it may, it gave me pause to think, "Dang, the MBTI was so right about my personality, what if it's right about my career choice?" Maybe I'm in the wrong major! I was a little depressed until I realized that I can do whatever I want, and right now, IR is what I want to do. I'm a freshman. I'm young. I don't HAVE to know what I'm doing with my life. If I want to be an archaeologist later in my life, I can.

For now, though, I am more than happy to be doing what I find interesting: international relations. and being awesome.

You are You?

If one were to forget all of his/her past, would he/she be the same person? Optimistic people, myself included, would love to say that you are you, no matter what. However, the other part of me that wholeheartedly believes in the "nurture" side of the "nature vs nurture" debate knows that this is impossible. If who you are is just an amalgamation of all your past experiences, then you could never be the same person. On the bright side, you'd still retain key factors (sarcasm!) in determining who you are; things like your mother's smile, your father's chin, and your grandmother's left earlobe!

Of course, I do believe that because you would keep all muscle memory and reflexes, you would quickly discover if you were a pianist or a black belt or a super secret black ops spy. Just going off of the aforementioned amazing movie (that I wont even name here because everyone should have already seen it at least a dozen times), your memories do not include languages spoken or skills gained. If that is indeed true, then much that makes you you is still intact. I won't say that you still are the same person, but you would still have more of yourself than most people blogging on this subject would say.

Augustine would say that your memories define you, no matter what you have done in repentance, so if one were to lose your memories, I wonder what he would say about that. If a sinner were to lose his memories, is he still a sinner? I would say no, because losing your memory is basically a moral clean slate. No experiences, no actions, no thoughts= no responsibility, right? It would make a quite a moral conundrum if a convicted murderer were to lose his memories. I wish ol' Augie were around today. He could comfort us by telling us that the memory loss victim actually IS a sinner, and that we are ALL sinners, because we've stolen fruit, thought about stealing fruit, enjoyed fruit, thought about enjoying fruit, or had sinful feelings for fruit in general.

"I did not have sexual relations with that pear!"