Personal Reflection Exercise
Before starting this assignment, I honestly did not realize that I could define my identity in so many ways. I didn’t realize how many parts there really are to my identity-my racial, ethnic, religious, gender, and sexual identities all complete who I am. Part of my project was a “book” that I made using a small box. I decided to use a book to represent the phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” a statement I often relate to. I painted the box, making it look like a book, and then I covered the book with words that are often thrown at me because of my religious identity. The outside of the book represented our society’s views and assumptions of who I am. I decorated the inside of the box with words that I truly define myself with, words that make up my identity-the real story. In the process of trying to think of words that I identify with, I realized that there are so many pieces that make up who am, and each aspect of myself is important to my overall identity. This exercise definitely allowed me to view myself as something more than just a girl attending Rutgers University; I was able to expand my view of myself and discover all of my different identities that make up who I am as a person.