Expertise and Identitities

Through recent experiences, I have been thinking a lot about my identity and the identity of others. Identity is extremely complex and made up of millions of things, both little and big. And when it comes down to it, each of us is the expert on who we are...and no one has the right to question it.

This leads to the whole idea of trying to understand someone else's identity. It's so easy to try to wrap our minds around it, but hard to actually understand it. Why? Because to REALLY understand a person, we'd have to know literally everything about them, feel exactly what they are feeling and go through all of the same things. And let's face it, even if we have had similar experiences, it doesn't mean we know how they felt. It's impossible to fully comprehend.

That then goes to say, who are we to tell a person who they are? And the answer is absolutely no one! We are experts in our own lives and only our own lives. Even if we are peers, we only can represent our own experiences. And each of us experiences things differently.

In the end, it's so important just to accept that fact, that we don't know everything. Empathy over sympathy...simply acknowledge that each individual knows best about themselves. There's no need to question it further. We all have quite complex stories to tell, and instead of placing labels, let's celebrate the diversity of identities.