Personal Narrative: My Sense Of Identity

Identity
Identity is achieved by weaving together different parts of the self. It is an arrangement of threads such as gender, ethnicity, religion et cetera, together to make you, you. Some of these things you have no control over, like gender, but threads such as religion and education, you have the ability to change should you so choose and because of this identity feels very personal. However, it is, in fact, social. Identity is formed in social and environmental contexts which make it fluid, non-physical and created through social interaction. A brilliant example of such fluidity is in my religious background; I was raised in a heavily religious environment and because of this, as a child, I identified myself by the religion to which I
One way to understand membership within a community is as citizenship. Citizenship is influenced by a range of different forces; political being the most predominant as citizenship commonly refers to as a membership of a country holding the corresponding passport. In this way it extends to more than just a community, it is rights and duties you have in exchange for your membership to your national community such as legal, political, social and participatory rights. Not all citizens are entitled to the same rights often it depends on your identity threads, for example; to study at a tertiary level in NZ, you must fit the entry criteria, failing that you cannot join a University even though education is a right. Being a NZ citizen does not automatically give you the right to tertiary study. Therefore, my identity as a student gives me the right to attend University. Because identity can alter your rights as a citizen of a particular community, citizenship is socially constructed, contextual and fluid much like the
Citizenship, for example, fosters a sense of belonging by not only including individuals in social conventions that require participation but also by allowing individuals the same rights and responsibilities as everyone else. Having a sense of belonging also depends on your sense of self and knowing your identity, being comfortable enough within yourself to participate in your community and practice your rights and responsibilities as a member of that community. A gym is a social hub; many individuals go to the gym daily so when I joined the gym, being unfamiliar with the ins and outs of the equipment and not knowing anybody didn’t give me an unyielding sense of