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FINDING INDIVIDUALISM IN A WORLD FULL OF INDIVIDUALS
Kathlyn Q. Barrozo
Class of 1991, University of Santo Tomas
B.S. Medical Technology
Trying to be oneself in a world full of other individuals can be really tough, but numerous people have proven
just how rewarding the entire experience can be, in a manner of speaking. It’s easy to fall into the jaws of
convention and tradition. Revolutionary self-creation can be too challenging to handle. We face many obstacles
along the way of establishing our own identity. However, as has often been said, each and every one of us is
unique in our own way. Even identical twins are entitled to be different from one another. Living at one’s pace
and one’s rules is the ideal.
We undergo numerous changes and face everyday occurrences that build us up to how we aim to become. Our
experiences create both imperceptible and apparent changes in us, with each stage significantly teaching us
more about ourselves at every turn. We need to welcome those changes and embrace them simply because
they endow us with the necessary skills and capabilities, with some that might be pleasant surprises and all.
We need never lose interest in living, because by just being alive we are able to establish our own identity in
this world. We need to love life and remain optimistic that our potentials will eventually lead us towards the
path we are each supposed to traverse.
Parents have a huge responsibility to see the uniqueness in their own children. They need to recognize their
children’s special gifts and abilities in order to encourage great development and wonderful outcomes for
everyone in the future. Parents need to teach their children that it’s perfectly okay to be oneself and that in
fact their children are each meant to become individuals who are happy with their accomplishments, who are
willing to explore their strengths and work on their weaknesses. In other words, children should be taught to
know themselves in contrast to others. However, they need to learn the valuable truth of being comfortable in
their own skin. If children unceasingly compare themselves to others, there’s a pretty good chance that they
will learn to be either vain or bitter. There will always be somebody worse or better than them.
As individuals, we must not make it a habit of using others as yardsticks. We have been created differently,
made to sing different songs and dance different tunes. We may have common points of interests and similar
(if not identical) trains of thought and concepts. But we must remember that in the midst of all that makes us
the same, we have a “self” that needs to be released and set free. Trying to imprison ourselves within a shell
just to bow down to convention is mere self-hypocrisy. And no one has ever really benefited from lying to
themselves, have they?
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
1.
What unique traits do you possess that make you glad you are who you are? Why?
2.
How can we become unique in a world that’s so tied up with tradition and convention?
3.
Why should parents participate in their children’s road to self-discovery? How can this be achieved?
4.
Do you feel constricted by all the rules you have to follow everyday? How would you change things?
5.
Why are self-discovery and self-creation important?