What Makes Us Who We Are?

            Martin Luther King Jr. once had a dream, Muhammad Ali floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee, Einstein developed the theory of relativity, Benjamin Franklin found the key with static electricity. Gandhi once said, “A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the souls of it’s people” (2002). Who we are is what we characterize to ourselves and through our self-expression is how we can provide benefit to our society. Flying down the highway on a two-wheeled representation of freedom constructed from grease and chrome. Nothing on my mind but nothing is never what it seems. The notes of a guitar are screaming from my fingertips through the amplifiers designed by the gods of rock and roll. The melodies echo from my garage through the empty streets of suburbia, I am the canvas and these are the brush strokes that construct my interpersonal being. I live for the moments that make me feel alive, the moments symbolized by the wings inked on my arm.  We are all independent beings capable of thinking for ourselves and designing who we are and one of the most important factors to this is how we express ourselves. Whether being written, drawn, or spoken, self-expression is an essential aspect to humanity because it defines independence and helps establish the society that we thrive in daily.
            The question that is being positioned isn’t if we should incorporate self-expression into our lives. It isn’t about uplifting our limitations and influencing the possibility of absolution through the ways we live. The real question is what our limitations are, where are we positioned today in our influential factors and what borders us from our achievements. We have a message playing to our imagination of individuality and self-justification. The military influences the motto of “an army of one” yet we all shave our heads and are force to react like a slave towards this fictional Uncle Sam. The mixed messages we get from the world are that we are all independently one unit. We work together for the common good, preordain for a cycle of life no different than what our fore fathers have intended us to have. Through school, work, the government, and the military we are trained to all have a common ground, to be the same in unity with each other. We are told that without this conformity we influence anti-unity within our social group. In direct opposition, I place one thought on our minds about this scheme, a proposal that can in fact defy this old lie incorporated into our brainwashed minds. Through our self-expression we induce a uniformed harmony within society that increases glee and proactive sovereignty that benefits the world around us.  
            Neal Krause did a survey on self-expression and how it directly affects our depression (Krause). In this nationwide survey he was able to determine that by utilizing our talents and expressing ourselves throughout our lifetime we can reduce depression. Knowing that forms of expressing ourselves to each other and even our self helps us reduce depression shows that there is a necessity for this. From my personal experience of creativity I have notice that I am more productive and proactive with everything else I do. One extremity that has been sought since the beginning of external thought is finding a meaning to life. There are many interpretations on the final answer to this but it can be generalized into one subject, our internal purpose for belonging. Although we have many different and unique things that keep us focused on this mental survival, like family, friends, religion, and society, we can all find a presence of meaning within ourselves. Through actions of self-expression we can help guide ourselves towards this purpose we all have within us, this purpose that keeps us focused on all the tomorrows that are to come in our life ahead.
            Another reason a form of creativity is important to us is because it influences learning and output better chance for success. Larry Livingston wrote an article called “Teaching Creativity in Higher Education” and within the article it explains that creativity is important in unifying knowledge and self-esteem (Livingston). Through these actions of using your own talents and abilities to learn is essential because it gives us the confidence in ourselves that how we piece together ideas is proactive in increasing our knowledge of things we are yet to understand. Incorporating creativity in our learning helps provide what people need to become future leaders of our world that we govern and it also provides benefit to our predecessors by helping us become better teachers in the future.
            In the military, school, and work there are roles in which we must play. The military has us all cut our hair the same, dress the same, and act the same to form this united group of protectors for our nation. Schools influence conformity through codes of verbal conduct, dress code, and in more drastic measures uniformed clothing undifferentiated from each other’s. Work integrates a little of both on a common ground to influence unity and teamwork. The biggest problems we face in society are the things that tear us from one another. Self-expression can influence anti-unity through how we interact with appearance and vocalization. The one quote that has rang though the heads of American citizens for hundreds of years is “united we stand, divided we fall” (Furtwangler) Without this conformity in our society we struggle in providing protection towards the future of our nation.
            The problem with conformity is that it actually does not contribute to unity. No one in the world is exactly the same as another person; we all have an essence of individuality within us. Compliant to the methods imposed on us to act, talk, and react the same just causes barriers in acceptance and compatibility with the unique talents we all have to share. In the song ‘Sound of Silence’ by Simon and Garfunkel it explains that our silence is destructive towards building a social structure. We all have a voice and an opinion and should be expressing it to help influence unity rather than forcing ourselves to a mundane lifestyle of servitude to the forces we have let take control of us.
            Variety of self-expression in the ways we talk, walk, and how we compose ourselves does not divide our unity at all; it enhances our unity.  We don’t need to all act the same and dress the same to keep us inline with each other, the more we express ourselves the more we understand each others views and opinions in the world we live in. We boost our overall happiness with our internal and external thought and apply benefit to the ones around us. We improve our leadership skills and apply stronger learning abilities with our creativity; it’s a necessity of life, a prerequisite for living. The questions I leave here today with are what will help us continue to grow as humans with the exertion of life’s disadvantages. What makes you who you truly are? What do you have to offer for yourself and the world? Who are you?

Hemispheric Heart Endeavors

Right brain, left brain
Artistically articulate and logically sane
You're my canvas and I'm your calculator
Forming the north and south of Earth's equator
Together forever, this is clever
A hemispheric heart endeavor