I don't know how to define myself or other people. What do you draw from to be able to make a concise summary? As soon as I think I can make a statement about myself I realize ways that it isn't true. What do you think some of the most important things are to ask yourself when trying to find out who you are? Like @the-traveller says people often first describe themselves by their job but this is a pretty shallow way to do it.
I agree with @the-traveler. And I guess the way society is established is exactly to erase our identity. To make us see ourselves and our value by how we contribute to it. Most of the things we do in life are to achieve social expectations. Go to college, find a job that makes good money even if we don't like it that much, get married, pay taxes. It's easy to set our mind in the automatic pilot and just go with the flow to wherever life takes us.
"What do you think some of the most important things are to ask yourself when trying to find out who you are?" Maybe just ask ourselves why we do the things we do. If the answer is not "because I love it" then we know we need to make some changes. Because contrary to what we think, we are not forced to do anything in this life. There's no need to lie to ourselves doing things we don't like, being who we are not. Sometimes we just have to break paradigms and remove the layers on us, then we'll end up finding our true self, our true essence to follow an easier and more pleasant path.
Thank you for such a complete answer. This is an important topic for me even though I thought it was cliche drivel for a long time. Now the problem of who to be and what to do are smacking me right in the face. I like your perspective.