Knowing Who You Are

Knowing who you are!

As part of our growth experience, people tend to identify who they are, with the group of people surrounding them.  You will see a group of friends wearing the same clothes, talking the same lingo and dancing to the same music. All this is done as a way of identifying with your peers. Coming from different backgrounds and different struggles of life, being part of the group of friends make you feel like you belong. Look at it from the teens of today, should you not have the skinny scotch jeans and colorful laced up sneakers, you will be the odd one out. Damn “you have no swag”.  Not knowing the likes of Mxit, Twitter, MySpace and Fb literally means you are of the olden and forgotten age, with a capital bolded B “Boring”.

For a while this continues, but as group dynamics change you begin to change to and new friendships are discovered.   The path of growing up never ends and growth is not about simply adding one to your current age. Growing up is self discovery and getting to know yourself. It’s about getting to know your strengths and weaknesses, and learning how to deal with such different traits and making the most of it. It’s about learning not to follow people/trends that are not going anywhere and rather walking your own path and making your own mark.

The greatest gift of life to oneself is finding who you are and being content with yourself. You later discover that life is what you make it and you hold the keys to your own destiny. Your dreams are far as your mind takes you. You start to believe that you are your own inspiration because you don’t want to fail yourself.  Like a painter with only colors and a brush, a masterpiece “you” become as you take the road to self discovery.  Day by day you discover a new you, day by day life unfolds a better you. As the great poet, John Donne says “No man is an island “,as human beings we don’t walk alone and do not thrive when isolated from others, but one must know his own path, for it will lead them to self gratification and being happy with what life may bring.  You embrace the challenges having faith that, you will come out stronger and living your life without regrets.

Despite where you come from and the difficulties you have experienced in your past life, I urge you to live for today and find “who” you are, find your purpose in life to reach your highest goals.  Don’t let your circumstances define you and your future achievements.  Be your own star and shine. Knowing who you are, is knowing your purpose on earth.

Zinzi Jezile

28 Sept 2010