During the last couple of years, I have spent my time soul searching, trying to find out who I am, who I am not, and what makes me that way. Sure, I could get into the chemistry of it all. I could tell you about my blood type, what my parents look like, how my ancestors sailed off coast of Italy to come to America. I could tell you my story, but my story is not what I am either.

Trying to come to any conclusion about myself in high school was a difficult task to achieve. Everyone changes themselves to fit in. Myself included. When I started to question if I was doing things because I liked them, or because someone else liked them, I knew that something was terribly wrong.

By soul searching, I found out the most important thing that people need to hear. Everything that society deems ‘important’ is not. The ideals of society do not identify my character or what type of person I am.

I am not my height or weight. I am not my number. I am not my grade or my class ranking. I am not my insecurities. I am not the number of likes on my Instagram posts or the number of retweets on my twitter. I am not my past and I am certainly not my future.

The list of things that I am not could go on, and after this is published I will probably think of more things that I am not. By realizing what that I am not, I also realized what I am.

I am my actions, especially the actions that I take under circumstances that I control. I am my personality. I am the inner workings of my brain and the deepness of my soul. I am the way I react to different situations. I am the way I think and the way I love, the way I hope, wish, and dream. Most importantly, I am me.

We see other people based on who we are. Society does not determine the value of individuals or their self worth. Everyone is worthy. People are more than their appearances and flaws. They are the way they greet someone with a smile, the way their eyes shine when they are excited, the way happiness pours out of them.

I have finally found out what I am and what I am not. Now I wished everyone else would too.