Personal Narrative: My Identity As A College Student

Another identity that is important to me is being a college student. On my mom’s side of the family, I am a first generation college student. My grandmother did not complete school after the 8th grade, and my aunt dropped out in 6th grade. Many of my other relatives completed high school and went straight to the work force. I am the oldest in my current family generation, and my younger cousins aspire to attend college “like their big cousin Katelynn”. This is a big role to fill, but I am glad to be a role model for my family members. Especially for my cousins in Surry who previously had no aspirations to attend college but are now actively looking and ask for my guidance frequently. I find it rewarding to be able to show them and others,

I have discovered my identity of being liberal. I find this important to discuss because my education and social relationships have greatly influenced this identity. This identity has drastically changed how I see the world. When I was growing up I always considered myself republican due to my parent’s views. My father is extremely conservative, and has tried to instill the same values in me. I distinctly remember my middle school doing a mock election during the 2008 elections. I had no knowledge about either candidate. I just knew what I had heard from my father; that we didn’t need a black president, it would make life living hell for white people. Looking back on this I realize how much our parents influence our views and values. I started to question how these views affect my day-to-day interactions with my peers. Was I implicitly bias towards them based on the things I heard my father say? I believed I was a republican until around sophomore year. As I began to learn more about the achievement gap, white privilege, and the reality that racism still exists in America I started to see a shift in my political views. I think that beforehand I was ignorant to the issues we face in society. Due to this, I believed everything was ok and nothing needed to be fixed. Now, I understand there are drastic changes that need to happen in our political system. Identifying as

Society greatly impacts an individual’s identity. I think it is crucial to keep this in mind when we make decisions both as an individual and as a society. We are privileged to live in such a free society but we need to take in account that these freedoms impact every individual. With a society full of many positive and confident identities, we can accomplish great