If given the task of listing the steps to make a PB&J sandwich, where would you begin?
Would you start at gathering all ingredients from your kitchen cabinets? Or from the grocery store?
How about the origin of those ingredients; the farm where the fruit for the jelly were grown?
Or the hours you worked before your paycheck to purchase the ingredients?
What is truly the first step in answering the question “How do you make a PB&J?”
Consider you are asked while first meeting someone new the innocuous, “Who are you?”
Do you answer with your name?
Are you the summation of your experience?
Or are you the service or career that you spend most of your time on?
What is truly the essence of ‘you’?
Your opinion of self may change during time spent with different people.
For example, you may feel more ambitious and confident around a supportive significant other as compared to an oppressive family member.
So more importantly than how do others perceive you may be the question:
How do I perceive myself while in the presence of others?
Does my behavior or opinions change in accordance with the people I’m around?
In other words:
I am not who I think I am.
I am not who you think I am.
I am who I think you think I am.
That’s all for today.
Until tomorrow,
Chandler Ball
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