Finding the Edges of Who I Am

Do you ever learn something new about yourself?

Sometimes, when I’m in a really thought-provoking mood — which is more often than not when I have a few spare moments — I think about who I am and what makes me me. And, in the process, I start finding the edges of who I am.

I think of me, as my life progresses, as the outline of a sketch of a person. The vague outlines are there but the detail is still lacking because the artist is still filling it in.

Most of us go through this process. As life progresses, we find the edges of who we are. What we like, what we don’t; who we like, who we don’t; what we will tolerate and what we won’t. Things like that.

And if you keep an open mind, you can find you can change the things you don’t like about yourself (perhaps for the better or for the worst).

For example, I was a chronic nail-biter when I was younger. Even into my 20s, I bit my nails. Now, we know nail biting is bad for your nails. And so I trained myself, somehow, to stop biting my nails.

Now, that’s not as big as, say, completing a novel or raising a child or learning to play the piano, but it’s still progress.

I often wonder if I’m the minority who think about these things, like I’m a shell with the details being filled in, or, I’m like a puzzle, with people in my life adding pieces to the main picture to help create a larger picture.

I don’t think we realize the impact others have on our lives, that sometimes they provide the edges of who we are. Our parents, our partners, our brothers and sisters, our children: If you look at them and how you interact with them (or maybe don’t interact with them), you might find they provide some of the edges of who you are.

So my dare to you is… can you find the edges of who you are?