We are who we surround ourselves with

There are many things that influence our sense of self identity. It all starts from the time we are born and we continue to change our identity until the day we die. We are surrounded by hundreds of people every day ranging from our family, friends, co-workers, peers, celebrities, and any other people we come into contact with on a daily basis. You control whether you have a good or bad self identity, you can choose to hangout around people who are bad influences on you. Or you can choose to surround yourself with positive and motivating people. You are also affected by how much you let the people around you influence your decisions. There is not just one specific influence that forms a strong self identity but in my opinion, the main influence on a strong sense of self identity is the influence from the people we surround ourselves with.
There is always one person in your life that has more of an influence on you than any other, it may be your mom, dad, best friend, grandparent, or even a boss, or a celebrity who you look up to. Many people would probably say that their parents and close family members are the people who have the most impact on their identity. This could be because from the day you are born they are who you spend most of your time with. Your parents set boundaries for you, as well as teach you how to talk, walk, and all the other little things that help you to be a successful person. Your family also sets your foundation for things such as religion and culture. These are also factors in your identity; some families are very culture orientated or very religious. This can sometimes cause people to go on the same path and have a lot of pride in their religion or culture. Or it could have the opposite effect, and they could feel trapped from having those things pushed upon them as children and they choose to rebel and not be religious at all or have a interest in their culture at all. For the people who grow up not knowing their parents, or just not being raised by them, may look at a grandparent or aunt/uncle as their role model. Not only do these people teach you the basics of being a human being, they are also the ones who are preparing you for adult hood. They send you to school at the age of five to start your education and social skill building. This is where you meet your first teacher who also plays an important role in your identity building because you spend about 5-6hours a day, 5 days a week, and about 7 months a year with them. After sending you to school your parents also push you to get a job so you can learn the meaning of money before you are thrown out into the real world. These are just a few things that your family has in influence on when it comes to yourself identity.
A second group of people that may have a large influence on yourself identity is your friends. When we are in our adolescent years our friends seem to be more knowledgeable than our parents or any other adult in our lives for that matter. Also they are easier for us to relate to so we tend to confide in them over our parents. The people that who you hang out with in high school plays a very large roll in how you turn out. If you surround yourself with teens that are driven and take pride in their school work, you will in turn take more pride in your school work because that is the trend of the group you are associated with. Or you can be involved with the group of teens who thinks partying and being rebellious is the ideal way of life. Often times these are the kids who use drugs and alcohol on a regular basis, have little to no desire to succeed in school, and are often times the ones getting kicked out of school and in trouble with the law. By surrounding yourself with these people you are more likely to fall into the same path and be less motivated in school and more motivated to party and goof off. Not everyone falls into these two categories; there are teens that fall right in the middle. They might go out and party on the weekends but they still have passing grades, and take pride in things such as sports and after school activities as well. When we are young we look to fit in so we will change our values to be in the “popular” crowd. But as we grow out of our adolescence stage of life some people care less about what their friends think and grow into their own category.
Another group of people that may have an influence on yourself identity is your co-workers or peers. We spend a lot of time at work so it is only natural that we change portions of our identity to better fit in and to ensure we work well with the people we are with on a day to day basis. It could be larger changes such as you may have someone who encourages you to do better work and this may help you to develop better work ethic and also build your self esteem and confidence. Or you can be affected negatively. You may have a boss or co-worker who is very negative and constantly telling you that your work is not good enough. This may cause you to be more defensive in the work place, or lower your self esteem from having someone constantly critique what you do in a negative way. Your peers are the people you share classes with. They may have an influence on you by the advice they give you on an assignment, or even if you are working in a group they may give you tips on how to better your study skills which may extend into your everyday life.
People in the public eye may also be an influence on you. Your favorite actor or singer might be someone you really look up to. Some people even go to an extreme, and get surgery to look just like their celebrity idol. Celebrities have their lives under a magnifying glass almost 24/7 so you may think to you self since they drink this kind of coffee I too need to drink this coffee. Or even they may wear a certain brand of clothing so you have to wear that brand of clothing to feel good about yourself. Or they may have a bigger influence on you; maybe or celebrity idol does a lot of charity work in Africa or for cancer. This may inspire you to find ways to make a difference in other people’s lives for the better. And just as a celebrity influence might affect you in a good way they can also have a negative influence on you. You may hear that your idol uses a certain drug, is in a gang, or even are involved in killing people. A lot of things you hear about celebrities is not true so if you feel that you need to commit crimes because your favorite rapper does you need to stop and think because, what they say is just for the entertainment aspect not really how they live their lives.
You can also be the biggest influence on yourself identity. You have the power to choose what it is you do with your life. In order to help ensure that you have a strong self identity is to be proactive; making sure you do everything you can to do the things you want or goals you have get achieved. Also being self motivated; this will help you to get things done in a timely manner and also not rely on other people to make decisions for you. This will help you to be a better employee because you will not have to rely on others to be on you about what you need to get don. You will take it upon yourself to make sure that the job gets done. You are your biggest influence because no one else can make you do anything you don’t want to do. You choose the path you take, there just might be some people how help you along the way.
So in conclusion, there are many aspects that contribute to your sense of self identity. In my opinion the people you surround yourself with have the biggest influence on your identity. Your family is one major influence on you, they set your foundation. From teaching you the basics like talking, walking, and all those little things, to sending you to school to get an education and learn social skills. Your friends also have a large impact on how you turn out. In high school is where the type of people you are going to be is usually determined by the group of people you decide to spend your time with. Then there is your co-workers and peer, these are the people that can make or break you in the work place. You can work with motivating people or have people negatively critiquing everything you do. So this is one of just the many aspects that forms a strong identity, and I believe is the more influential.