Simran Khanna Professor Carmen Acevedo Butcher COLWRIT R4B 22 September 2022 Evolving Identities Who am I? A very complicated question in three, simple words. I’m still trying to figure this out, but every day teaches me a little bit more about who I truly am. My emotions, the way I react to situations, and my interactions with other people – all of these things make up who I am. In this essay, I will explore the different parts of my identity such as my values and culture, my beliefs, my hobbies, my passions and research aspirations, and my cognitive biases, and how, while trying to find myself, I will continue to change and grow. The values that I hold, the struggles I face, and the culture that I embrace play an important role in influencing who I am. So far, I have learned that I value having a good relationship with friends and family. I rely on having a support system of people who I can laugh and love with. These are the people that matter to me the most, so I make an effort to maintain these connections. Moreover, I value my education and my future career, and am willing to put in blood, sweat, and tears to achieve my goals. However, sometimes I am so focused that I forget to live in the moment and can oftentimes get stuck in a perfectionist mindset. In the Forbes article, “Perfectionism Is Bad For Your Career: 3 Most Important Things To Know,” Tracy Bower describes how perfectionism can demotivate and “reduce the effectiveness” of one’s work (Bower). This is something that I can relate to because my perfectionist tendencies do ‘demotivate’ me to do work since it needs to be perfect, which further decreases my efficiency. Although I have struggled with this, I have become better at reminding myself to look at the big picture and reflect on how stress or anxiety won’t help me at all. Another obstacle I have faced is my tendency to procrastinate. In his blog post, “Why Procrastinators Procrastinate,” Tim Urban describes how procrastination can take control of one’s life by preventing one from working on assignments, career goals, and even relationships (Urban). Procrastination has been something that affected my schoolwork and friendships, however, I have started to create a healthier relationship with deadlines and encourage myself to reach out in my friendships. Finally, something that I hold close to my heart but also struggle with is my culture. Growing up as an Indian American girl in the US, I longed to fit in but felt detached from my culture. My childhood was filled with memories of celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas but also Diwali and Holi. I loved being able to experience two different cultures, however, it never felt like I truly belonged in either one. Thankfully as I grew older, I slowly started to immerse myself in my Indian heritage, and my guilt of not being ‘Indian or American enough’ went away. I came to accept these two unique identities as my own, and now I can proudly embrace them both. These experiences show how I keep changing and how my sense of self keeps evolving into a new and improved, version of myself. My beliefs are not only something that create me — they are something that I have created. I like to think that I view the world through a ‘glass half-full perspective, giving people the benefit of the doubt and trying to find the positive in situations. After watching David Steindl-Rast’s, a monk and interfaith scholar, Ted Talk, I live by the motto that grateful people are happy people. His Talk discusses how if one practices mindfulness and is grateful for every single moment, that ultimately leads to one’s happiness. For me, this is a revolutionary mindset to adopt because I realized the importance of being truly appreciative of everything one has in life, allowing me to lead a more fulfilling life. Finally, my mother taught me to believe in the idea of karma. In Hinduism, as described by the World History Encyclopedia, karma is the idea that the “good and bad happenings experienced in this life are aggregate results of deeds in this and previous lives” (World History). This view of karma includes the idea of reincarnation, and it makes me stop to think about my actions and how they might impact me down the line, perhaps in different lives. Looking at the more creative side of me, I love to do anything artsy such as painting, drawing, or creating collages. There are several things that make me happy, but food is definitely at the top of my list. Even though I’m not the best cook, I am a huge foodie and I love to try new dishes. I love listening to new music, regardless of the genre, language, or artist, and pride myself on the 80+ playlists I’ve created on Spotify. The more professional, refined parts of me heavily influence what I aspire to be, what my future career might look like, and what I would like to research in this class. In this regard, I plan to double major in both Business and Environmental Economics & Policy. At Berkeley, I am extremeley involved in Project RISHI, a student-run nonprofit that promotes sustainable development and growth of rural Indian communities. I am the Education Co-Lead, so I lead a team that works to increase the quality of education, tackling problems of infrastructure and teacher absenteeism. This past summer, I got to go to India and implement the projects we had been working on. That trip was truly transformative, it made me realize the amount of positive impact one can have on people. Furthermore, I am passionate about environmental sustainability. I feel that we are destroying the planet, so we need to make a conscious effort to help save it. Similarly, I would like to have my career in sustainable agriculture, perhaps helping to promote eco-friendly farming practices that could give back to the land. Thus, I would research a topic that revolves around the idea of sustainable agriculture. For instance, in a YouTube video directed by Robert Greenfield, an author and environmentalist, he discusses a project where people, Indigenous folk and allies, got together to do Indigenous-inspired permaculture on a reservation, immensely helping the land. Research such as this would help me to better understand sustainable agriculture, aiding both my personal passions and professional interests. Algorithms specifically look at the parts of my identity that are easy to target and perhaps exploit. To them, I am a young adult who is a feminist, likes shopping for clothes, and watches either murder mystery or rom-com movies. Algorithms probably know which classes I am taking, my favorite restaurants, and my search history. In an interview done of UPenn’s Wharton Professor, Kartik Hosanagar, Hosangar discusses how the data algorithms collect allow it to influence a significant amount of our decisions whether it be for online shopping or choosing a Netflix movie. Using this collected data, algorithms can then give recommendations and predict what search results I will like (Hosanagar). Thus, when I research, the information finds me. In other words, the algorithms predict what articles I will gravitate to, which headlines I will like, or what post I will spend the most time on. An algorithm can significantly impact the research I do, as it controls what information I see and what is hidden from me. Moreover, my own cognitive biases affect my research as well. Adam Kyrk, the Manager of User Experience and Design at NPR, writes about biases and how it impacts research in his article “Overcoming Cognitive Bias in User Research.” For example, Kyrk writes about confirmation bias, the idea that one might prefer evidence that supports one’s beliefs rather than fairly considering the evidence that doesn’t (Kyrk). This is something that I participate in, knowingly or unknowingly, and in turn this would affect the quality of my research. Through biased google searches or cherry-picking articles that suit my argument the best, confirmation bias is something that I am guilty of, so I have to make a conscious effort to stop it. Who am I? In conclusion, I am a daughter, a sister, a student, a businesswoman, a reader, a traveler, a foodie, a perfectionist, a friend, and so much more. However, this is who I am today, not tomorrow or in the next 20 years. I will have new ideas, value different perspectives, change my favorite color, and move on. We are the sum of all our experiences, and these experiences keep changing and evolving. Essentially, we are like a sponge; we soak behavior, traits, good or bad deeds, and so on. We squeeze out during our interactions with other people or ourselves, showing the world who we are. As I grow older, I will continue to soak in new experiences and squeeze out different reactions — I will learn and grow and change. There are several things that make me who I am, and I’m excited to discover more about myself as time goes on. Works Cited
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