day 26 ~ who i am

it was the simplest question…three little words.  “who are you?”

i think in the beginning of this journey, the idea of vocation vs. occupation was one of my biggest hang-ups in trying to answer this question.  because in my case, my occupation – geological technician – it doesn’t exactly say much about what i love and what is important to me.  don’t get me wrong, i love my job…. i just don’t derive my identity from it.  i have never felt ‘called’ to be a geo-tech.

so if my occupation doesn’t tell me who i am, what does?  well as a homemaker/wife/mother, my vocation, this is what i love and what is important to me.  the only difference is that i don’t get a W-2 at the end of the year for my efforts.

this discovery was a key piece to the puzzle.

the more i thought about it, the more i realized that the things i do everyday that carry out my vocation also express what is important to me…my vocation tells a lot about what i do.  what i do is inextricable connected to who i am.  and so if that was the case, what other things do i do?  what can they tell me about who i am?

for three years i have been exploring this very thing. why it took me three years to figure this out speaks to my very special talent of making things way harder than they need to be.  even still, i am proud of my journey…i learned a lot about myself.  and it opened up my eyes to all of the things i do that, even though i might not get paid for them, bring my life joy and meaning.

what i have learned along the way is that with any ‘i am’ statement, it has nothing to do with the amount of money you make or the title you wear.  the answer to that all important $64,000 question lies in what you do.  because i believe that what you do is who you are.  every single day, in the ordinary and mundane, it is in our actions that we discover our identity.

and so what that being said, my dear friends, i thought i might i share with you how i can finally answer that all important question, ‘who am i?’.

• i am a Christian…i am a child of God saved by Grace
• i am a daughter and a sister
• i am a wife
• i am a mother
• i am a homemaker
• i am a sentimental, nostagia junkie
• i am a photographer
• i am a blogger
• i am a gardener, baker, seamstress, and crafter
• i am a bookworm
• i am a mess-maker
• i am a wine enthusiast
• i am a coffee drinker
• i am a nature lover
• i am a homebody
• i am an introvert
• i am a data organizer
• i am a problem solver
• i am a runner
• i am a friend
• i am a student of life
• i am an over-thinker and over-achiever
• i am a perfectionist
• i am (occasionally) a cuticle-picking, nail-biter
• i am a chocolate addict
• i am a science nerd
• i am (sometimes) my own worst enemy
• i am hopelessly optimistic
• i am a dreamer and a believer

in the end, i guess what i have finally learned is that who i am has very little to do with how the world sees me…but rather, it has everything to do with how i see myself.  and now, i am beginning to like what i see.

thank you so much for joining me on my 31 day writing challenge. to see all of the posts in this series, please click here. and if you would like to receive future posts via email, you can subscribe here.

 

 

 

 

from the archives

• mess-maker
• little things
• a self-portrait
• i photograph