Family Tree

Gratitude Challenge - Week 39 - Your Heritage

I am 100% Caucasian, which has been particularly impressed into my mind as I applied to colleges and scholarships and selected "White" on every single application.

Literally, my heritage refers to my family tree. On my mom's side, I come from a long line of Irish Catholics that moved to the Midwest, while my dad's side is made up of Protestant Pennsylvania Dutch farmers that centered around Nebraska.  

Heritage means so much more than someone's mere genetics. It encompasses a person's history, the practices and customs passed down among a family, the experiences that make a person who they are. My heritage involves where I have lived and who I have chosen to spend time with, my ups and downs, my struggles and triumphs. My heritage is my story and all the events that add up to create it. 

All of my heritage shapes me, but it does not have to define me. As humans, we have a habit of characterizing ourselves, creatures of community that desperately want to fit within a group. Thus, we often resort to labels. 

In and of themselves, labels are not bad, but the mind is a powerful force; when we tell ourselves we are something, we often become that, at least within our own perception. For example, if I tell myself I am confident, I often carry myself with more confidence, but conversely, if I tell myself I am doubtful, I begin to doubt myself even more. 

Recently, self-reflection has dominated my classes at school. As we approach graduation, the teachers make one final push to increase our introspective qualities, which will play definitive roles in our adult lives. In an effort to learn more about ourselves, my classmates and I took the Myers Briggs personality test. 

The test categorizes all humans into 16 personality types made up of four contrasting characteristics (Extrovert/Introvert, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, Judging/Perceiving). I thought this test was simply another form of labeling because it seems impossible to characterize every human being into one of 16 types. 

The first test I took sorted me into a personality type that was the opposite of how I characterize myself. According to the test, I was an extroverted sensitive person who depends on feelings to judge my surroundings. Upon doing some research, these ESFJs make up the popular crowd, the people who relish in the spotlight and enjoy the company of their friends for their emotional needs. All in all, it was not me. I laughed and decided the test was inaccurate.

We had to take the test twice and choose the better result, so I tried again with a different test. This time, I actually related to my result. The test characterized me as a logical person who flourishes with structure and responsibility, enjoying the company of others but preferring solitude. This sounded much more like me. Plus, fictional ISTJs include Hermione Granger and Tiana from The Princess and The Frog, two characters with whom I relate.

I can and do learn a lot from the labels I fit into. However, I am not doomed to the fate of these labels; fate only exists in Greek mythology, not in real life. Although my heritage forms a key part of who I am, who I become is completely up to me.