Be Done with Defining Yourself

Humans try so hard to define themselves as one thing.

A minimalist or a maximalist.
A singer or a painter.
Books or movies.
Night or morning person?

I was around 13 years old, a freshman in high school, when I started questioning my personality traits. How would I characterize myself? If someone asked me who I was—what I liked, what my vibe was—what would I say?

So every night, I sat down and decided one thing about myself.

I like books.
I like music.
I am a night owl.
I am a minimalist.

Wait...

If I were a minimalist, I wouldn’t have a book collection. Then am I a maximalist?

But I don’t like having more than one of the same thing. I prefer books and vinyls, which makes me a maximalist in some sense.

I like the feeling of waking up early. Not that I’m good at it, but when I manage to do it—when I wake up early and feel energized—I love it. So, am I a morning person?

The pressure to force myself into these labels felt like stuffing my identity into a can of sardines. It was suffocating.
I couldn't move outside of the narratives I created for myself.
I was scared that breaking those self-imposed rules meant losing the identity I thought I was building each night.

But this year, I’ve decided not to portray myself as just one thing.
I am more complex than a single word can capture.
It’s time to break the frames I built around myself—for myself.