Weekly Reflections : Identities and Citizenship

We often wonder who we really are and what our purpose of life is. Well, the answer is not as simple as it seems, but not as tough as well. The first CAS lesson, we did the first impression activity, in which we were required to write 3 traits about ourselves and 3 other different people are to write about their first impression of us. many of my first impression consisted of friendly, outgoing and hyper. I am indeed all of them. The first impression we give others is very important. in that split second many thoughts would go through someone’s mind and obviously, they are judging you. As an extremely judgemental person, I think a lot when I first meet a person, I judge them from their appearance to body language, to tone and character. What others think of us might not be what we are, and vice versa what we think of others might not be what they think of themselves. ‘Who am I’ is the question we’d find ourselves pondering about. Personally, I feel that there is no specific definition. We are not defined by our skin colour, our language, beliefs, our intellectual standards, and of course by academic. We are who we are. You are just you. That’s the special thing. And no one should love you more than yourself. We can find someone we the exact same habits or interest. But they are still not you. Twins/triplets/quadruplets look identical. But they are still differentiated by their different thumbprints and tongue prints. Who am i really, and what is my purpose? I think my purpose in life is to just be what I’m best at; being happy and bubbly. Perhaps what others see me as is what I really am.

Another thing we did was question what kind of citizen we are. One impactful thing was the sweatshop. It’s really saddening to know that people are severely underpaid to make our branded apparels. It’s not fair that they have to spend many years of their lives sewing the same seam. Countries like Cambodia. Honestly, I think this is a very selfish act. Countries or even the people stuck in poverty will have to live in this misery and poverty throughout this life. They are always being driven to a corner such that they will always be underpaid and they can’t afford many things. The poor people will always be pressed under the thumbs of the rich peoples/countries/companies. Because of the poor state their country is in, wages are low there, cost price to make things are cheap, workers are cheap to employ as well. If there is still no action taken to improve things for these people, they would have to suffer. Families would have to borrow money for the month and use the salary to pay people back. Still leaves them with no money. Kids would have to drop out at certain age because they couldn’t afford to have education anymore. The kids there long to have a proper education. And always, first world country kids like us don’t seem to appreciate that we have such advanced education with excellent facilities in schools. We always overlook the fact that someone needs and wants what we have. But yet we cannot appreciate what has been given to us. As long as there is a demand, these people have to work terribly hard to support their families. As consumers, we should take action as well. Be an activist. It’s unfair that people have to slog off just for us to enjoy such luxury. But of course people may question if there aren’t any cheap workers to employ, who will do our apparels? I believe the apparel brands are able to pay each worker a little more extra because they are profiting so much from their products. ‘This is a selfish world’ people say. But it is only selfish because of the citizens. there are no equal rights around the world. Things have been defined and set for us. The poor should not always be condemned under the thumbs of the rich. If everyone do their part to make this world a better place, to be a good citizen, I highly doubt that this world is a selfish world. Every little actions counts. It all starts with you.