Identity Paper.

Personal Choices

Regardless of where we come from, we all have the power to decide what path we will take in life and who we will choose to identified as in the future. It doesn’t matter what country someone is from, what race we might are or where we you grow up as a child. We don’t have control over these things but we do have all the power to make the right choices. Where someones chooses to end up in life is a direct reflection of their personal choices they make. We have millions of decisions we have to make on a daily basis, some consciously, some not. We never know where our decisions will take us but we can always strive to make the right ones.

In the story, Who You Callin’ a Bitch?, Queen Latifah talks about how she overcame many obstacles in her life but still became a successful woman in spite of that. She chose to view herself as a “Queen”, she chose to ignore all the negative influences in her life and have better for herself. Latifah didn’t sit around feeling sorry for herself because she grew up in housing projects, she didn’t choose to sell drugs to make up for the money that her mother didn’t have even though she worked three jobs.

Latifah states,”What I am is a young black woman from the inner city who is making it, despite the odds, despite the obstacles I’ve had to face in the lifetimes that have come my way. I have lived in housing projects and in fine homes. I have hung out with drug dealers and presidents. I have had to clean bathrooms for a living. And I’ve had my own maid.” (33-34) She made up her mind that she wanted to be better, and that is exactly what she did. Her mother was a big influence on her life choices, she supported any decision Queen Latifah made, never limiting her. Granted she probably didn’t make all the right choices in life she knew what she wanted and she went for it. In her story her last words are powerful ones, she says, “It starts with you… You have to want it for yourself. You have to know yourself.”(36) Queen Latifah is a smart woman, if everyone believed in themselves the way she did, we might all be successful.

In Firoozeh Dumas’ reading, The “F Word”, she teaches us how to overcome other peoples opinions of us, and to be happy with ourselves inside. That was her key to being successful, being happy with who she is. She talks about coming to America as an immigrant at a young age, with an uncommon name and the people who she was surrounded by weren’t so accepting of her. Dumas wanted to have “…a name that didn’t draw so much attention, a name that didn’t come with a built-in inquisition…”(85) She wasn’t happy with her name and in turn was not happy with who she was inside. Dumas decided to change her name. “I finally chose the name “Julie” mainly for its simplicity.”(86) Changing her name made her life simpler, she had more friends but she was pretending to be something that she wasn’t. She wasn’t “Julie”, she was Firoozeh. She went through college, jobs and even got married with the name Julie, but she was lying to herself and to everyone around her. She says, “I felt like those characters in soap operas who have an evil twin… I decided to untangle the knot once and for all by going back to my real name. By then, I was a stay at home mom, so I didn‘t really care whether people remembered my name…”(87) She was a strong person to be able to take all the crap people gave her for being a foreigner, but in the end it made her stronger. Dumas was happy to be who she was despite living with a so-called “unpopular” name, she was finally happy to be Firoozeh and that was all she ever really wanted. Learning to accept herself made her successful in her own life.

From personal experiences, sometimes it is not easy to make the right decision but it is much easier to make the popular decision. It might not be cool to go to school growing up, but it’s also not so cool to skip and experiment with drugs. Making the wrong choices in life is not beneficial for anyone, especially for your own life. When you’re 23 with two kids to support and you don’t have a college degree to get that life changing career because you made the popular decision to skip, you will wish that you could go back in time and change things. You don’t have to sell drugs to get by in life, it might be rough sometimes but you can always make it through those times if you just stick with it. Making the right choices is what it is all about.

Being popular might be important in high school but when you “grow up”, it doesn’t matter so much anymore. If only we could go back and explain to our past selves what the future would be like if you did this or that differently. Unfortunately, that is impossible. We can only do the best we can, everyday and learn from our mistakes. We never know where our decisions will lead us in life. Just remember, only YOU have the power to decide what path you will take in life and who you will choose to become in the future. Think about that the next time you have to make a decision,

what path will you choose?

Personal Choices It doesn’t matter what country someone is from, what race we might are or where we you grow up as a child. We don’t have control over these things but we do have all the power to make the right choices. Where someones chooses to end up in life is a direct reflection of their personal choices they make. We have millions of decisions we have to make on a daily basis, some consciously, some not. We never know where our decisions will take us but we can always strive to make the right ones.Regardless of where we come from, we all have the power to decide what path we will take in life and who we will choose to identified as in the future. In the story, Who You Callin’ a Bitch?, Queen Latifah talks about how she overcame many obstacles in her life but still became a successful woman in spite of that. She chose to view herself as a “Queen”, she chose to ignore all the negative influences in her life and have better for herself. Latifah states,”What I am is a young black woman from the inner city who is making it, despite the odds, despite the obstacles I’ve had to face in the lifetimes that have come my way. I have lived in housing projects and in fine homes. I have hung out with drug dealers and presidents. I have had to clean bathrooms for a living. And I’ve had my own maid.” (33-34) Her mother was a big influence on her life choices, she supported any decision Queen Latifah made, never limiting her. In her story her last words are powerful ones, she says, “It starts with you… You have to want it for yourself. You have to know yourself.”(36) Queen Latifah is a smart woman, if everyone believed in themselves the way she did, we might all be successful. In Firoozeh Dumas’ reading, The “F Word”, she teaches us how to overcome other peoples opinions of us, and to be happy with ourselves inside. That was her key to being successful. Dumas talks about coming to America as an immigrant, with an uncommon name and people who she was surrounded by weren’t so accepting of her. Dumas wanted to have “…a name that didn’t draw so much attention, a name that didn’t come with a built-in inquisition…”(85) Dumas decided to change her name. “I finally chose the name “Julie” mainly for its simplicity.”(86) She wasn’t “Julie”, she was Firoozeh. She went through college, jobs and even got married with the name Julie, but she was lying to herself and to everyone around her. She says, “I felt like those characters in soap operas who have an evil twin… I decided to untangle the knot once and for all by going back to my real name. By then, I was a stay at home mom, so I didn‘t really care whether people remembered my name…”(87) Dumas was happy to be who she was despite living with a so-called “unpopular” name, she was finally happy to be Firoozeh and that was all she ever really wanted. Learning to accept herself made her successful in her own life. From personal experiences, sometimes it is not easy to make the right decision but it is much easier to make the popular decision. Making the wrong choices in life is not beneficial for anyone. People don’t have to sell drugs to get by in life, it might be rough sometimes but they can always make it through those times if they just stick with it. Making the right choices is what it is all about. Being popular might be important in high school but when people “grow up”, it doesn’t matter so much anymore. If only we could go back and explain to our past selves what the future would be like if we did this or that differently. Unfortunately, that is impossible. We can only do the best we can, everyday and learn from our mistakes. We never know where our decisions will lead us in life. Just remember, only you have the power to decide what path you will take in life and who you will choose to become in the future. Think about that the next time you have to make a life changing decision.