Identity

“Go with wise men and be wise: but he who keeps company with the foolish will be broken.” – Proverbs 13:20

     This quote is often used to describe people based off of their peers. As humans, we tend to lose track of our identity and lose our uniqueness to common conformist beliefs, but this unique individuality is what sets us apart from one another to create relationships that last forever. 

     Conformity can be great. There is strength in numbers, but the ones who stand tall and provide limited traits otherwise not present in their peers are often the ones who survives in the end. To not "forget who you are and where you come from" (Fitzgerald) is important in a vastly changing world. That is not saying that always standing out is a positive. There are always times where coming together is always better than going off into a path alone. Being able to realize when to fit in and when to draw boundaries between the people around you allow the quote mentioned above to not hold true. The actions of a person's peers does not have to define who they really are. 

     Here is a real-world example to attest to my claim. I would always ask my parents to hang out at a friend's house, only to hear a stern no. My argument was, "but all my friends are going" and most of the time, I would hear these words: "If your friends jumped off a cliff would you?" Now this is a wide stretch of their imagination, but it goes to prove a point from my parents: just because your friends do it does not mean you should. 
     In the short story we had to read over the weekend, you can see Kismine survives the suicide of the family because she strays away from what everyone else in her family did. Even the thunder (God) disagreed with the choices the family made and refused the offering of diamond. 

     Stay true to yourself and it will all work out in the end!

How do you find the right balance between maintaining a unique identity and fitting in?