Who you think you are?

[Nottooimportant]

It's a serious question. Who you think you really are? What makes "you" you? Do you think you are different from other people and why? From where you get your self-worth? Do you love yourself and why? Do you feel superior, equal or inferior to others and why?

[HighlyVolatile]

I'm a bit on the eccentric side. Most of my self-worth comes from pursuing goals I find meaningful. I don't know if I can say I love myself. I usually don't hate myself either though. Mostly I just try to accept myself, flaws and all. It can be a struggle sometimes when I do something really dumb.

I don't feel superior or inferior to anyone. Some people have a difficult time believing me but I never felt jealousy, for example, and I think it's because I can't compare myself to others. The emotion of jealousy is alien to me, along with malice. I'm not a saint though, far from one, and maybe that's part of why I can't compare and judge. I don't know other people's internal struggles. I can't read their minds. I am no god.

[HighlyVolatile]

I think perhaps people who compare themselves to others a lot might be focused more on the outward things, like wealth, fame, looks. I tend to focus more on the inward. So I see a celebrity with fame, wealth, looks, women, all those types of things we might all desire but I can't assume their lives are any easier or harder than mine. I simply don't know. And so I don't know enough to be jealous. I don't know enough to think them superior. I don't know enough to see someone absent a lot of such things and think them inferior.

[Nottooimportant]

Isn't comparing ourselves to others a part of life? I mean for example how can we know that we are good at something without comparison. I get what u mean. But comparison is necessary sometimes.

[HighlyVolatile]

If we're talking about practical comparisons, sure. For example, I used to run track as a sprinter and long jumper so I'd compare my 100m dash times and long jumps with others to get a sense of where I am relative to others. I do this type of comparison in context and of course, I recognize that I'm a faster runner than some people, and slower than others. But mostly it's more like comparing myself than judging others. There's a whole bundle of things that make up a person. I might be a faster runner but they might be a better swimmer. I might be worse at writing than someone but perhaps better at math. There are too many dimensions like that as I see it to say I'm overall better or worse than anyone else.

[HighlyVolatile]

Beyond that, I'm a big believer in hidden potential. So if I find someone who seems horrible at almost everything they do, even then I don't think they are inferior to anyone else. I just think we've failed to discover what they're really good at.

[Nottooimportant]

Yes i agree to what u said. We are similar and unique at the same time. No one's life is exactly the same as someone's else.

[HighlyVolatile]

Cheers! I'm also of the opinion and ideal that people can change. At least I would find it very difficult to accept myself with all the mistakes I've made in life if I thought it was impossible for me to change. So if I believe I can change, then everyone else should be able to as well. It's very difficult, for sure, and many people don't change much over the years. But I never thought it impossible, and that might also affect how I view other people.

[HighlyVolatile]

The one type of person that upsets me the most though are the ones that seem thoroughly convinced that they can't change: the self-proclaimed hopeless cases. Like incels, for example. Those upset me deeply, and sometimes I get very judgmental towards them as a group. But I don't hate any individual in such groups. I just hate what they believe because it's too bleak and depressing to me.

[HighlyVolatile]

Lastly, I seem to be what some people call "empath". I get easily swayed by the feelings of others as though they are my own. I could be at my own birthday party and just see one stranger upset and I feel upset to the point where my friends have to ask me what's wrong, then I point out the stranger who looks upset and they think I'm crazy that I'm letting some random stranger affect my mood this way. Yet it's something I can't help so much. I have found ways to deal with it better by I'm highly swayed by the feelings of people around me.

[HighlyVolatile]

It includes some dark things too like I can absorb angry feelings of other people and get angry even though I have no reason to be. I don't see why some people wear the "empath" label with pride. I see it as a psychological disorder and possibly neurological as well, like too many mirror neurons. On the plus side, it prevents me from being able to hold judgmental views towards individuals since it's difficult to judge what we're empathizing with.

[Nottooimportant]

Yes i see what u mean. Life is based on changes. Everything changes and nothing stays the same even us as humans. But sometimes it isn't easy even if the person wants to change that's why some people decide to suicide especially people with mental illnesses. Sometimes people face hardships and traumas that makes it difficult to change but as long as we are alive there's always a possiblity to change

[HighlyVolatile]

Each day is a chance to start anew. That's an old Buddhist proverb I always liked. I think people who genuinely believe that can find more reasons to keep on living and bounce back even when life knocks them down.

[OfDeath]

It's one of a greater number of possible combinations of my parents combined DNA than the grains of sand of the Sahara Desert combined with my own unique circumstances of both natal and neonatal, infant, early adolescent, late teenage and adult circumstances which make me who I am.