Be Careful Little Eyes What You Read

Sometimes I feel as if people try too hard to find themselves. Worried too much about what others think of us; we develop this warped picture of ourselves that is not really who we were meant to be. I feel that we are pressured too early to figure out what the rest of our lives must turn out to be. Through adolescence people are experimenting with lifestyles, rebelling their pasts, and changing thought processes daily. With all the emotions that go along with being an adolescent, honestly finding ourselves is almost a joke. Think of the number of people who change their majors more than once throughout their college career. If changing our majors was not an option, there would be a lot of unhappy people in the world. So, if we are gradually allowed to figure out what we want to be, then what is the rush in finding out whom? Personally, if I continued the with the life I chose for myself in high school, my future would be as follows: married to a man who thinks I am worthless, and working long hours as a sports trainer, and be gone most nights of the week and weekend. Needless to say, I would be missing out of love, and an occupation I am excited and passionate about.
I believe that life changes as we live it, and personally I find it usually changes for the better. So why do our choices as adolescents have to be what we live with for the rest of our lives? I think we need to grow into ourselves instead of growing into a lifestyle that we think is best for us. I think growing into ourselves would make people more comfortable and confident in their own skin. Is that not what we are all striving for anyway? Logically, I know that it is not that easy. When the world fights back and tries to tell us who we should be, it spins us in a whirl wind. The stereotypes and generalities that are predetermined by society make it hard for us to “just be ourselves”. The noticeably dominant and subordinate groups want to classify some people as better than others. Now, do not get me wrong, I believe that we were all created equally, however if the domination of some groups is so great, I begin to wonder if maybe thats the way things were meant to be. On page twelve of the text, the authors suggest that dominate grounds do not really know what the subordinate groups experience. I agree with the authors in some cases, but what is the percentage of people who are dominant in every aspect of their lives? I feel that even if it is not noticeable to the passer by, everyone knows what it is like to feel inferior to someone else. I feel as if some things that are deemed dominate to society, can put people in subordinate situations. The more and more I think about it, the stereotypes cannot be the deciding factor of who we are. I believe that how we live out our lives within those generalized categories is who we are; the stereotype itself does not determine that for us.
I am a Caucasian, twenty-something, upper middle class, protestant individual. According to the stereotypes, my dominance is high and life should be good. So if that is what the world sees me as whom I am. Who am I? As a college student who has never been drunk, loves Jesus, and have excessively traditional values about every aspect of life, I feel pretty subordinate.