Individuality: How Do You Define Yourself?

As the year is winding down, I find myself sitting at my computer screen for hours on end writing pages upon pages of essays. I can usually breeze through papers, but I recently came upon an essay prompt that stumped me entirely: “please write an essay that best describes you.” I repeated the words “best describes you” in my mind several times before I decided that it was an impossible task, and I closed my computer hoping that it would go away entirely. To my dismay, however, it did not.
 
As the days drew on and the necessity to complete my essay grew stronger, I was forced to come face to face with this daunting task once more. How could I possibly convey who I am through a bunch of utterly insignificant words?
 
I decided that the only plausible way for me to answer this question would be to tell my reader the most basic and fundamental facts about myself. (Let’s just say that is much easier said than done). The first step to completing this task required me to know exactly what makes me, me; what qualities differentiate me from any other girl attending college. An even more shocking reality was that I really didn’t know the answer. What does make me unique?
 
I began by writing down all the things I do, ranging from athletics to hobbies to academics. The list consisted of nothing special: member of a sorority, economics major, artist, etc… just like a lot of other college girls. Awesome. So I took a deeper and more introspective look, analyzing myself and wondering what in the world makes me different.
 
I am sure at one point or another many of you have contemplated this same idea, whether or not it was prompted by a homework assignment. I can say from experience that contemplating your purpose in life is not a particularly uplifting thought, especially when literally nothing comes to mind. Many students here at GW, myself included, pride themselves on feeling accomplished. We have all excelled to a certain extent in our lifetime; that’s why we’re at GW. But what comes next? What happens when you’re no longer cradled by the comforts of academia? I often wonder how much of my self image is dependent on the accomplishments I have made during my years in school—and if it is reasonable or healthy to define myself that way.
 
Perhaps it is wrong for me to define myself based on my test scores, my grades, or the amount of friends I have. In my defense, however, it is hard to stray from a quantitative description of myself when numbers are constantly thrown at me. I am told that in order to be successful in life, I need to have good grades, and in order to be happy, I need to have a lot of friends. But sometimes I wonder what those numbers even mean. Is that really how I should be defining myself? Probs not. Instead, I should consider my interests, passions, aspirations, values and relationships. That is how I am unique—because my favorite color is orange and my favorite animal is an elephant. I like to write, paint and solve puzzles. I am opinionated, conscientious, organized, curious, and I love to laugh. And most importantly, I am a good friend. If you look closely, you will see that none of those descriptions are quantitative.