Americans aren't given a clear sense who we are. We're given some ideas of who we are form our parents; but it isn't long before we realize that our parents are flawed human beings like we are, and their wishes and expectations for our lives are often poignant and damaged expressions of their own wishes for themselves. It's nothing to base a life on.

Who are you? You probably have some sense of what this means, whether it's comfortable for you or not.

If your idea of yourself is something that doesn't bring you ease and joy, it's something you can and should reconsider. After all, "who you are" is just a thought you are having. It's not something that needs to be immutable. How many thoughts do you think, or actions do you take, that you don't think represent "the real you?" If you study your images of yourself, you'll find that they don't necessarily reflect how others see you. This is impossible. No can see you, or anything else, the way you do. Even if one of your friends is from the same ethnicity and background as you, they have different experiences and different associations. If you could read your best friend's mind, it it would be strange and wonderful beyond what you can imagine. It would be like entering Narnia.

If you've experienced this truth in a visceral way, you may have had an existential crisis-anything that made you realize your perception of things is not absolute and universal, or made you challenge your idea of who you really are. Maybe it was a breakup, or problems with family or at school. If you haven't, this experience is both terrifying and liberating. It challenges you to come to terms with the fact that everything you've experienced, every thought you've had, is, in a way, you.

Who are you? You have the potential to be anything you've thought or experienced. Everything you've done, to yourself or anyone, is a reflection of who you are. If that isn't something you like, the good news is you can start to change at anytime. All of your actions start as thoughts-start thinking the thoughts that will produce the things you want to do.

If you're uncomfortable with yourself, it's because your reality doesn't reflect who you really are. Now is the best time to start changing this. You can live the most beautiful, ethereal ideas about yourself and the world, because these ideas are, like your ugliest and worst ones, part of you. People are complicated. Start growing the parts of you you want to get the most light from the sun. Start now. The clock is ticking.