How would you describe yourself if you could not tell me your job description or title ?

it's a short read...

One of the most cliche aspects I find in our interactions is when we are asked who we are. I realize that everyone immediately shifts into spilling a pre-recorded version of their resume verbally, sometimes even verbatim.

It is a question I have always asked myself, I’ve also never found an answer tbh. Maybe it was a '“perspective” problem because I always seemed to attach it to a role I was occupying at the time. For example, at a time when I was teaching in my service year, I was proud to call myself a teacher as I enjoyed the idea of educating others and I defined myself by that title and the role I played even though it cut across many other things like writing the news for the students to read each week and also creating a section for hot gists happening in the school premises just to spice up the social activities and it yielded positive results as students were 2x more attentive on the assembly ground. Afterwards, I have done a couple of other things, but one thing has remained constant, my desire to help others be better and do better. I think it is best to say that that’s who I am and it is easier to navigate the choices I make through that, whether my job is that of a plumber or a doctor. It’s the constant drive to help people that truly matters and I think the same applies to all of us even though we think our reasons are purely financial.

Moving on, I watched a video on Instagram by @addieadessy where she talked about how people base their identities on their career progression or how well they performed at something and then she posed the question which I used as the title of this read; “ If someone asks you who you are, and you couldn't say your job title, What would you say ?”.

Then I asked the same question on my WhatsApp, a lot of you just rephrased job titles and descriptions and spat it in my DM. Turns out we’re all in the mix of allowing only our work to determine and define our identities. Maybe this read is a chance for you to self-introspect and view your life holistically because other factors make up your persona like your interests, your hobbies, religion, culture and then work etc.