Personal Narrative: Who Am I And Why?

Who am I and why…appears as a sentence very simple and straight forward. As I look at the sentence and what it is really asking me, it becomes harder and harder to construct an appropriate concise answer to the question posed. At an instinctual level I first want to say that I am human. I am a part of the human family on earth. I have fundamental physical characteristics that inform me that I am human. I have a body, arms, legs, eyes and hands like other humans on the earth. Out of all the other species on the earth I look more closely to a human than I do any other species. When I begin to add context to who I am as a human. When asked who I…I think, I am a 41 year old African-American woman. I am a mother, daughter, student, employee, sister, cousin, aunt, friend, colleague, grand-child, niece, ex-wife etc., simultaneously. These are words that have been used to identify and describe who I

There is power in the tongue (Bible) as a man thinketh so is he (Bible). I appreciate narrative therapy it main concept is that individuals live out the narratives given to them by society and their families. The narrative provides meaning for the individual and in many cases purpose. Issues appear when the narrative is constraining and restricts you from being one’s true self. We are what we are because that is what we have been told. Solomon and Greenberg (2015) state “Our shared cultural worldviews the beliefs we create to explain the nature of reality to ourselves – give us a sense of meaning, an account for the origin of the universe, a blueprint for valued conduct on earth, and the promise of immortality (loc 225-227).” I had tried many different religions before deciding that Christianity fit. Christianity made sense and provided a healthy way to live on the earth. Prior to Christianity I felt my life was chaotic and purposeless. Christianity also provides a narrative for who I am and