College Essay

In today's world, whether for the fear of rejection by others or for the fear of disappointing ourselves, we are used to being disguised. Often, we are simply afraid to find out who we really are. But not always are we disguised or afraid. Sometimes we simply go through life thinking we are something that we are not. We mistake the identity that we have created for ourselves for our real soul. And this is a big challenge on the journey of finding ourselves: not to be deceived by what seems to be our personality on the surface, but to dig deeper and find out who we really are. College is known as one of the best places to embark on this journey.

Why is the journey known to be so risky? Besides the fact that it is easy to mistake what is on the outside for what is on the inside, there are deeper, more important, and therefore, more dangerous risks that comes with being oneself. In my understanding, one of those is the fact that others do not always accept us for who we are; that is a well known truth. However, a less well known, yet simple fact is that we, ourselves, do not always accept us for who we are. What is the danger of fully accepting not only our strengths but also, weaknesses that none of us are spared of? Everybody wants to be perfect, that is why. With accepting and acting fully like ourselves and not the superheroes we all want to be, comes a high possibility of disappointment and confusion. What if someone who thought himself brave and courageous finds out he is in reality a coward? Imagine the disappointment and devastation that person must feel. Perhaps even harder than finding out who we are, is accepting who we are. The answer is to learn to love oneself completely and to embrace self-identity.

Without knowing of ourselves, we are lost in this world. As cliché as it sounds; we cannot begin to understand the world around us without first understanding ourselves at the deepest, most personal levels. It is so beautiful to be the way we really