A 2022 New Year’s Reflection

When one considers how the influences in their life have shaped themselves, they must give attention to multiple versions of themselves. A few examples of versions of oneself that should be given attention to when considering how the influences in life have shaped oneself include ones that are past, future, fictional, imaginary, and potential.

If I am to consider how the influences in my life have shaped me, I can’t forget to pay respects to who I am from the perspective of a friend, who I am from the perspective of someone who hosted me through AirBnB, and who I am in my own eyes. To give full acknowledgement to how fickle memory is, I write this here.

In paying respects to multiple versions of myself throughout the past couple of years, each varying from another in many ways, a few images have come to mind: a coral wall that serves as a medium for different energies to interact, clash, and merge through; a sword being tempered with the use of a hammer; and me feeling compelled to travel in a certain direction or take a certain action upon a flash of inspiration.

There are many ways in which I can go into describing the sum of multiple versions of myself. It may be best to save describing such a thing for another day–perhaps one that is far from now, in the future–as it takes time for great things to culminate and form.

If I were to describe such a thing now, I would have to operate under the belief that the term “I” should be defined as something that extends beyond the individual, and individuals in general. Moving forward with this idea as a foundation, I’d argue that “I” am a medium for formations of intersections between livelihoods.