Identity

What if you saw a stranger when you looked in the mirror? Would that drive you insane? It is a crazy question I know. What if you woke up and realized you are not the person you thought you were? How would you tell the people you love?

Identity is the essence of us. It reaches deep into our core. We are all unique in this time and space. If we had birthed a second sooner or later we would be different. Our identity started forming the moment we breathed our first. It never stops mutating. Who you are at seventeen is not the same you at twenty-five. You might think you are but you’re not. Time has changed you in so many ways. You’ve met countless people, experienced a myriad of situations. Indelible marks are etched on you. Your core remains but you are growing to what you gonna be. Who you were meant to be.

For a long time I fought that growth. I wanted to be stuck in time. It felt safe to be hardcore. Pure ignorance on my part. Time wouldn’t stand still nor fate and consequence. Either grow or vegetate. I took the bait and thrived. Earl Sweatshirt’s lyric is especially poignant. He raps “You say you eating but we see you getting cooked.” If you try to fight the pull of progress you only getting cooked. You won’t survive. You can’t. Change is inevitable.

Sometimes I look in the mirror and it’s me smiling back. Sometimes there’s a smirk and a stranger lurking ready to pounce. Lately the stranger is me and am smiling too much. That feeling is too insane to comprehend.