Is it me? by Khalid

Is it me? by Khalid - November 2018 Scholarship Essay

"Don't let people define who you are"
Those particular words do not seem like much when you look at them, another cliche statement to avoid peer pressure and potential sadness. However, I think those words are enough to define a lot of the problems in this world today. Some are typical like discrimination. racism, injustice, or equality. Some problems are more focused like Identity and morals. It all first starts with a word.
The do's and do not's of society keep others bridged from their true selves. When you are put in a hard decision and it is very important to you the first voice that you hear is don't. It is hard to let yourself type the same word as you are describing, however, it is all in the effort you put into the description. When you let the procrastination and laziness take over thus forgetting the point of describing how you let something happen. It is uncontrollable at times but ultimately. Only people can let something happen, there is always a choice. The foundations of the problem and the solution, It is always tough to judge a person based on an experience, however, most "People" tend to do it all the time enforcing an agenda of hate and preference. This situation breeds the problem and solves it with the eventual acceptance of others and the creation of a new social norm, almost as if people write history, oh wait...

In my opinion the most important word in the entire phrase due to the impending doom that is being predictable. The older one gets the more people (including him/her self) get used to the current situation they are facing, this creating the point where people "Define" themselves and either shape their legacy in fear of being forgotten, or shape their legacy to protect their already forged definition. This word comparatively towards teens really means the cliche saying "Follow your dreams" however it holds much more meaning behind the typical "follow" and instead switches the phrase to "Define your own dreams"

The main reason why this paragraph is created into a phrase and not separate words is due to people confusing these words creating the inevitable phrase "Who are you". Now this phrase causes panic in the brain scrabbling the words around to perform the given name that has taken its place to label a person as such. Flip it back to "Who you are" and it poses not a question, but a rally. The words "who you are" are (grammatically incorrect to say without the accompaniment of any other stabilizing words to increase understanding of the phrase :D) used as a statement to answer the question "who are you" with radiance and confidence. This phrase is meant almost as a mantra in some ways, empowering the idea that you understand who you are fully and are prepared to focus that understanding and mold that into your life story which will be remembered not because of how much money you had, or how much influence you had over the world, but because of how much you understood who you wanted to be, and nobody could take that away from you