Identity and Belonging Context Essay Essay

A strong sense of identity & belonging are vital for personal happiness. Intro; Imagine youre a child on a playground who is bullied. You feel rejected and left out. At home with your family you are comforted and warm, and you are able to play games and do what you like, be yourself. Although you do not feel as though you belong at school, you feel as though you belong. This makes you happy. You can be yourself and your identity is not lost when you are at home. Some could argue that this is personal happiness. However it could be stated that because you have not got a strong sense of a identity in the outside world, it is difficult to understand your public identity, therefore perhaps not even have one. Some have multiple identities for different communites in their lives. Humans are not meant to belong to every group there is, our likes and dislikes form our identity and who were are. In saying this, it is important to have a strong sense of who you are and where you belong, regard less of who this is and where this person belongs. Belonging to multiple groups means sometimes changing your identity for these groups. You might be the confident coach of a soccer team, but also the quiet and demure listener of a book reading evry week. Identity is formed around what a person is like. gaga. To not understand oneself adds difficulty in finding where you belong. Perfect chinese children; ‘ Erica doesn’t speak to [her] for the rest of the day. Without knowing why, [she is] ashamed’. Vanessa is ashamed because Erica saw her as resembling the Australians more than an Asian, but she doesn’t understand when she is just as ridiculed as Erica is. This puts Vanessa in a confusing and upsetting place, not knowing who she is and who she belongs with. She doesn’t understand if she is Asian or aussie, and in her world those seem to be the only two places to fit in. If you don’t have an identity, how are you supposed to know where you belong? Youre identity is like a key to your own happiness. If you know who you are, and what you like or don’t like, you know where you belong. An identity crisis can cause you to feel lost and unknown