Monday, November 28, 2011

Definition of YOU

On any given day you will be asked as an individual to check a block, a block that is designed to outline who you are for society in one way or another.  Not sure how others feel about this but every time I come across the what now appears to be "categories" and eight blocks I have a hard time because there is really not one or the other that I find myself in.  I am not Latin so this block does not apply nor am I Caucasian, because I do not hail from the Caucus Mountains.  So after the alternatives are even less at identifying me, I find that I must pick one, or face the stare when you go to turn in what ever application you have just filled out.  Than the really great question comes up the one that just makes me laugh out loud.  SEX:  and the option is male or female, honestly the question is really asking a yes or no answer and if you feel froggy go ahead and put how many times this week.  At some point this question does even more to disqualify me as a member of the accepted categories because were I am female, and yes I am Hispanic, the architects behind the application are actually stating more about themselves than about the population that will be asked to fill it out. Maybe just maybe the questions that are not being asked but are being presumed by the line of questioning is " are you a well adjusted person for your age, and culture" are you having sex regularly or do you need assistance of the medicinal kind ?  So after the shrugging of my head over and over again, I have come to the conclusion that none of this really matters to me and most certainly does not even begin to identify who I am.  As a member of the military, they have gotten the point and simply don't ask who you are, all to quickly the will let you know who you are and exactly what values you will stand for.  Again, I beg to differ were my value system and theirs correlates they don't exactly meet up.  PT every day, blah blah blah, minimum standard is blah blah blah, qualifying score is blah blah blah, and so forth.  So if you not only meet the standard but exceed it, than shouldn't you as the individual be allowed to set a new standard?  Or are we going to remain subjected to the one standard that they have found in order to define your worth?  Not so fast, there is not one standard that they have given me that I did not already come with, there is not one value that they have cornered the market in that I did not already poses on my own, so they also cannot define me.  When we as individuals allow an outside entity the privilege of defining you as an individual than you unknowinlgly succumb to what they have decided.  Either knowingly or not society has set up a class system and you will be asked to fit in one way or the other, that is of course if you opt out of defining yourself and allow the outside entity of those who have some level of control over you to do the work.  The talents and traits that you poses are not ones that society has given you, you have had a larger hand in who you are than what society wants to regulate you to.  When the power is handed over to someone else I believe you lose more than you gain.  On any given day, I will tell My Soldiers that we bear some level of control on their success, ultimately it is in their hands, we can no more decide it than they are willing to allow.  We don't make you a hero, you do that, you do this by understanding the very fiber of your being, and deciding that your potential is in your hands only.  If I allowed anyone short of myself to decide my self worth or potential I can only imagine what I would never have accomplished.  Your talents are yours, society will only add to them but can not give you them, your success is also yours, society will give you the platform but ultimately it is yours and yours alone. Society is simply asking what nice little group can we put you in, it is time to make your own group, because either way they fail to understand the ones that they put on paper.  Next time you fill out an application look for the insight that is not there but  is in you.

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