Our identities are what's unique about us and yet in today's society we find so many people hiding their identities as its not "cool" or its not what everyone else is doing.
To me, everyone was given a certain identity for them to express it in their own way whether that's through singing or dancing, playing sports or being a member of a certain club these things all contribute to the making up of our identities.
For many girls in our year sport is who they are whether they play one particular sport of twenty different sports its who they are. Maybe its from the many matches they played and have been congratulated on or those intense competitive P.E classes (we've all witnessed those!) or maybe its the girls who lighten up our days with an 'auld sing song in the GPA at lunch with their guitars and amazing talent! We see the girls in our year always willing to help and always a thought for others. Nevertheless we would not recognise these girls without these strong qualities they posses, its their identity, its who they are.
Unfortunately, this is not always the case. There is not always that ability to be free, open and confidant with your identity. Some hide their passions and identities for fear of societies reactions and how they may be treated. For example, take Rory O'Neill or 'Panti' We've all seen his touching speech which had an impact on us all. He is treated differently because he is not the same as everyone else and he is not societies typical man, Just because someone is different that does not give you any right or authority to treat him or anyone else any different to how you would treat someone who appears to be 'the same' as you. I mean what makes you think you have that right?
We are all different and some people are punished for it because they are not ashamed to show it and not ashamed to be known as something other than 'normal' and not ashamed to be someone that society classes different. So really we should as ourselves, what is normal? Normal in the dictionary is described as something usual, standard, or typical. These in my opinion are words you can use to describe something, and object, not someone. These aren't human like qualities so why so many people on today's world are so desperate to be 'normal' ill never know, I mean why be normal when you can be different, you can be YOU.
A.C.