WRITING CHALLENGE | KNOW THYSELF HEAL THYSELF
Identity — Who Am I?
KTHT Challenge Prompt July 6th 2022
Since I awoke from a coma at age six with no memory, I have struggled with identity. Who am I? What am I? These two questions have plagued me for fifty years because even to this day, I am not sure I have an answer.
Our identity has often been associated with labels — daughter, son, sister, brother, mother, father, parent, white, black, brown, doctor, lawyer, laborer — the list of labels are endless. Yet, none of these labels describe who any of us are at our core, and often, we can be mislabeled and stuck in a perfect, tidy box as to be acceptable to society.
I grew up in the south of the United States — Virginia, to be exact. Southerners have all kinds of labels, many of them associated with slavery and the Civil War. Racism and bigotry are still the norm there. My family still wears many of these labels as badges of honor — they are proud to be ‘rednecks’, i.e. racists and bigots. I had a great great uncle who fought on the Confederate side of the Civil War. My family still see him as a hero and brandish the Confederate flag proudly.
I wanted nothing to do with that identity, nor did I want to wear any of those labels. I was not racist nor a bigot. I found no pride in having a family member who fought to keep people enslaved. And yet, I did have pride in my heritage of being a southerner from Virginia. I accepted alternative labels— hospitality, generosity, charm, and grace.
During these past fifty years, there have been other labels I have rejected, like motherhood or traditional wife. I’ve also discovered that I don’t like wearing labels because they are not the sum total of Who I Am. They are not my identity, even though I am still not quite sure what that identity is.
The Prompt:
So given my long diatribe above, this week, I want us to discard labels that society has given us and explore our own true identity — Who Am I?
While pondering this question, consider this quote:
One of the ways to know who we are is to also know what and who we’re not. — Terry Cole Whittaker
There is no right or wrong way to answer this question. Perhaps there are labels you do not mind wearing and you want to share those. Or, perhaps you have created your own unique identity and you want to share that. However you approach this prompt, feel free to fully explore your own identity.
Recommendations
As stated in our previous challenges, the basic recommendations for your stories are as follows:
1. Use the prompt to write a poem or personal essay.
2. (Tag) Mention at least (3) three of your favorite writers (here at KTHT or elsewhere on Medium) and ask them to participate. Each of those writers will then mention at least (3) three more, and so on.
3. You may submit your story to KTHT or to any publication that allows prompts from other publications.
4. Regardless of where you submit your piece, You MUST include a link back to this page and (Tag) mention one or all of the KTHT editors — Diana C., Spyder, jules, or me, Ravyne Hawke
Stay blessed, my friends.