The beginning of the new school year brings a lot of excitement. I love buying new school supplies, getting out all of my new pens to color code everything, spending time with people that I haven't seen all summer, that sort of thing. But one thing that brings me major anxiety is my generation's obsession with labels.
Don't get me wrong, labels can be super helpful, but sometimes the pressure to know exactly how to define myself is overwhelming. The good thing about coming out and labeling yourself as this or that, is that it forces people to not assume that everyone fits into a nice little square box of "normal." That's great and I love it, and if you know yourself so well that you can label yourself as certain things, it becomes very helpful. The level of PC on my college campus, is, I think, great. Everyone is so sure to make sure that their peers feel safe and comfortable.
I can appreciate that, but I don't know how to define myself. Because of the pressure (that may or may not actually be there, honestly it could all be internal) to call myself something, I have, on multiple occasions, labeled myself incorrectly, and then felt even more anxiety later when I've realized that.
After labeling yourself, it doesn't really seem like you can take that back without belittling whatever identity you had put on yourself, but then it also feels like belittlement adopting the identity and living under the label falsely.
I know that this is irrational. That's what anxiety is - irrational.
Every social media bio needs to provide the world with my stats - my gender, sexuality, religion, political ideology, age, etc. These demographics of my identity, when listed out, feel like they strip me of the one thing that they are supposed to provide. I lose myself and become only one of many females, only one of many liberals. There is nothing left to me. I am only made of listed parts, and I am not whole.
There's really no safe way to do this. People are anxious without labels. People are anxious with labels. Going to college is prime time for defining or redefining yourself. You get told this constantly. Some variation of that quote is in every article you will read about college. It is reiterated by your RAs, your CAs, your chancellors, your professors. You will not go through college without someone telling you that "you can (or will) redefine yourself! Yay!"
I suppose this is just a casual reminder to everyone that people aren't all the same, and that while you may be comfortable labeling yourself and sharing that with the world, others are not. Don't pressure people into revealing themselves. Sometimes you aren't even ready to tell these things to yourself, let alone others. Respect boundaries. Give peace and love to everyone on your campus; they all deserve a safe space to shine.
