It Can Be Hard to Establish Your Identity When You Feel Different from Those Around You
It can be hard to establish your identity when you feel different from those around you
A feeling of belonging is obviously a human’s fundamental needs. To establish your identity, you
need to make people affirm and support you as a person you are becoming. However feeling
different from a young child can have rippling effect on the rest of your lives where they can have an
identity crisis because we are constantly reminded of our differences. Those who feel like outsiders
can have feelings of loneliness, isolation and rejection that can make it difficult to establish their
identity. Consequently, through fear of prejudice, we are forced to conform to meet society’s views
on us.
Family expectations are prevalent in certain cultures and have the capacity to make one feel
different from those around them. In Asian culture, hardworking children are seen as successful and
success bring honor to the family. Therefore academic success is what each Asian parents seek from
their children. Sometimes parents’ demands to have their children to be a high achieving student
can bring pressure on the children and can have negative consequences on ones sense of identity
and belonging. While living in an easy going culture in Australia, many Asian students feel like
they are different from their white peers because they are being pressurized by their parent while
such demands are not burdened on the white peers. In “5 Ways to Disappoint your Vietnamese
Mother”, it was clear that mother’s goal for her (becoming a doctor or lawyer) did not match her
own ambitions. It is not until the end she got kicked out from her home that she can start finding her
own enjoyment and career in acting that her friends support that helps create her identity. Further
Lily Chan tells the ‘dreading 4 o’clock every day when she started work after school in
A feeling of belonging is obviously a human’s fundamental needs. To establish your identity, you
need to make people affirm and support you as a person you are becoming. However feeling
different from a young child can have rippling effect on the rest of your lives where they can have an
identity crisis because we are constantly reminded of our differences. Those who feel like outsiders
can have feelings of loneliness, isolation and rejection that can make it difficult to establish their
identity. Consequently, through fear of prejudice, we are forced to conform to meet society’s views
on us.
Family expectations are prevalent in certain cultures and have the capacity to make one feel
different from those around them. In Asian culture, hardworking children are seen as successful and
success bring honor to the family. Therefore academic success is what each Asian parents seek from
their children. Sometimes parents’ demands to have their children to be a high achieving student
can bring pressure on the children and can have negative consequences on ones sense of identity
and belonging. While living in an easy going culture in Australia, many Asian students feel like
they are different from their white peers because they are being pressurized by their parent while
such demands are not burdened on the white peers. In “5 Ways to Disappoint your Vietnamese
Mother”, it was clear that mother’s goal for her (becoming a doctor or lawyer) did not match her
own ambitions. It is not until the end she got kicked out from her home that she can start finding her
own enjoyment and career in acting that her friends support that helps create her identity. Further
Lily Chan tells the ‘dreading 4 o’clock every day when she started work after school in