Story about the Author - Essay Example

31 October The Person that I Am When people ask someone who they are in a deeply philosophical manner, some people might have a hard time understanding the question and truthfully answering it. At first, I admit that I had some difficulty answering this question too, not because I do not know who I am, but because I have not actually thought about it in comprehensive and analytic way. Furthermore, I am more comfortable showing people who I am than telling them about my identity. I want to know people’s true identities too through interacting with them. Words, for me, are easy to make up, and actions, however cliche it may be, are stronger than words. For the past few days, I have been writing about myself and I became more conscious of who I am. I am a Middle Eastern, middle-class, male, Generation X, extroverted Muslim Emirati, who believes in the mixture of determinism and free will and the capacity of human beings to become good and that despite their prejudices, they can learn to respect each other’s differences, if they only tried. I am from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and as an Emirati, I am open to multiculturalism, fiercely passionate about my own culture, and liberal-minded when it comes to diverse social issues. Others just see me as a plain Middle Eastern man, which is not the same for me, because the Middle East has diverse cultures and ethnicities. When people ask me if I am from the Middle East, I tell them, I am from the UAE. This is not because I do not wish to be related to the Middle Eastern race, but because I want to specify my ethnicity. I believe that people cannot lump different ethnicities into one regional identity because national, family, and individual identities shape people too. As an Emirati, I grew up in a society that some people will call as a paradox. On the one hand, my family is a conservative group of Muslims. On the other hand, our family is composed of liberal thinkers too. I learned from my parents to respect other cultures. I can tell non-Muslims that Islam is the highest religion and a Christian can tell me otherwise and I will not be angry at him for saying so. If I want them to respect me as a Muslim, I will respect their religious or spiritual beliefs too, or even when they do not have any shred of spiritual belief in their lives. Emiratis are open to multicultural societies. They have developed with diverse cultures and religions in their midst. In addition, in this multicultural society, I enjoy having a strong voice. As a devout Muslim, I am prepared to discuss my religion to anybody. I can debate on points of facts, values, and policies. However, I will never force my beliefs on anyone. As long as people can live peacefully together and share common goals for life, happiness, and freedom, I find it no need to settle in lifelong disputes. The future should not be a bitter struggle because of people’s differences. Middle-class living is part of my family’s heritage and it provided me many social and economic opportunities that made me technology-dependent, optimistic and quite carefree to some extent. Being middle-class has given me comforts in life. I grew up watching the fast transition of technology from VHS to CD to DVD. Now, people can watch movies and TV shows online. Almost everyone has a cellular phone, even some of the poor. The fast-paced technology made me dependent on it. I cannot imagine a life without my mobile phone. I have some difficulty thinking about not having a computer or laptop at my disposal. They are my access to the Internet where I get information on about almost anything in the world. The world is at my fingertips and I feel comfort in knowing that. Being middle-class has made me optimistic because I know that I can access information easily. This information, if valid, can help me make good decisions in school, workplace, and even in life. Furthermore, since I have a comfortable life, I am quite carefree. I do not get easily bogged down by problems. I see the silver lining in the darkest days because I know that I or we, as a society, can change it. Being a Generation X member is connected to being a middle-class one because of the technological comforts that made me confident and realistic at the same time, as well as carefree, but pragmatic. Because I have seen technology change radically in the span of two decades, I thrive on creativity. I believe in the power of creative products in changing how people think and act. Moreover, because of the toppling of authoritarian regimes in 2011 and 2012, I became more aware of the populism of the times. People can shape the destiny of their nations. Before, ordinary people cannot even consider ousting their kings or presidents because they feel powerless. Now, because of technology that can unite them and through having common ideals of freedom and development, they can join their efforts and break free from the claws of repressive regimes. I feel more empowered now than the generations before me because I know that I can also partake in these kinds of social revolutions. Furthermore, my generation is hopeful and pragmatic. I am positive because I am focused on my goals in my life. I want to finish my studies with good grades, work in my country, and have a happy family. I can attain this through education, discipline, and hard work. Despite this optimism, I am cautious too. Many people who are corrupt and wicked can hinder my goals, which is why I also have to be careful in dealing with others. On the side of materialism, Generation X is said to be more materialistic than the Baby Boomers. I believe that we are just more technology-oriented and competitive. If Baby Boomers had their American Dream (and similar ideals) to hold on to, my generation has their own individual dreams. On my part, I believe in a simple life with technological comforts. I want to make enough money to give my family a good life, but I also want to have time to travel the world. I am careful with money and I try to save as much as I can. Recently, I have developed a system for saving, where I recorded all my expenses and decided to cut or decrease all unnecessary expenses. These efforts are helping me save money, which I can use for other future investments. I may be young but I do not want to suffer when I am old too. I can rely on the social welfare of my government, but I will not completely depend on it. I want to retire with enough savings to travel the world with my wife. As a man, I have strengths and limitations, which is focused on gender norms. The UAE is a masculine culture to some extent, but I cannot deny the power of the female in shaping our private affairs. I have more social freedoms than my sisters and female relatives. Still, because of our liberal family, we give more freedoms to our women than more conservative Muslim families. Our women are very independent in transporting themselves, although they travel in twos or groups for protection. They have finished college, while some of our girls have plans to be doctors, engineers, teachers, and other professions. Sometimes, they complain that their parents are too strict on them, while lenient on their brothers. I agree. I can go out late at night, while my sisters cannot. I understand the freedoms given to my gender that can affect the opportunities presented to us. For instance, I can marry at an older age, while my sisters and female cousins are pressured to marry at their early 20s. Some of them have run away from their homes because of forced marriages. Many of them have managed to negotiate their freedom to choose when to get married. I do not have these dilemmas. Though my parents want me to settle down in a few years, they do not mind if I do not marry until my late 20s. When I made a joke to them that I will marry in my mid-30s, my mother frowned and I thought about her mind buzzing of her lost years as a grandmother of many grandchildren. But in the end, my mother sighed and she said that I am a man with no ticking clock inside me so I can marry when I am older if I wish. Because I can marry later, I can do many more things in my life. I can pursue graduate studies. I can travel. I can do anything I want with my money because I have no children to feed yet. Some women are not that lucky. They are forced to marry early and they can no longer study while they have young kids. They might want to, but if their husbands want them to stay at home, they cannot do anything about it. Thus, my gender is advantageous for me. However, masculinity has its gender limitations. Women can openly express themselves. They can be emotional without being judged of being petty. Sometimes, I want to express my emotions too, but I fear being judged harshly. This limitation inhibits men like me from being more expressive. The male gender is not perfectly free after all. As a Muslim, Islam affects my way of life and identity. I believe in determinism, but I also feel we have free will. God has plans for us, but we choose the roads we travel. In addition, some non-Muslims might think that Muslims are close-minded because the former have not known enough Muslims or they know nothing about Islam. They only have Muslim terrorists to base their assumptions on. But Islam is a tolerant religion. During the apex of Muslim kingdoms, several Muslim rulers were tolerant to different religions. Indeed, I respect people’s religious differences. I know also that if only people tried to know more about Islam and other religions and actually interacted with these believers, they will respect the strengths of different religions. Furthermore, I am an extrovert because as a Muslim, I want to learn more about other people. I am not afraid that learning about others will change me. In fact, diversity strengthens my Muslim identity. When I interact with different religions and ethnicities, I want to learn what makes us different and similar. I am not surprised to determine something that binds us all. Who am I? I am who I am based on my demographics and individual aspirations and traits. I am a product of my culture, my family, and my generation. I am someone with free will. I am someone who believes in the power of God. I know that diversity is good for all of us. It means that God made us to be creatively different and to find the human in us to accept one another. I am technology-dependent but materialism is not my driving force in life. I have a God-given mission that I will pursue with determination and passion. I am an Emirati man, and I respect women’s freedom and I hope that someday, there will be no gender limitations, only opportunities for each and every person to become who they want to be in any society they live in. Read More