I have always had trouble trying to think of a label for myself -- something that can conclusively say who I am, what kind of person I've become, and where my potential lies. I feel a very powerful need to identify myself, to set down in finite statements the entirety of what makes me a unique individual.

Trouble is, this is a fool's errand.

I've lived for more than two decades, and all that time is nothing to laugh at. Yes, there are people who are far older than I am, people who have lived through much more. They can conclusively say that they've gone through a great deal. That fact doesn't discredit, however, the thousands upon thousands of hours I've spent doing things as well: working, playing, rejoicing, suffering, making the most of my days and nights.

Compared to those racked up by my elders, my years may seem meager, but the precise measure of time does not change, even though our relativistic views of it may do so. I have more than eight thousand days behind me -- can you hold in your mind how long that is? Can you capture all the experiences, decisions, judgments, feelings, thoughts, and actions, and then tell me what they all truly amount to?

Flip the coin. Consider the future: the unwritten, the uncounted, the indeterminate. Can you set down what hasn't happened yet? Can you know what I'll be doing and what I'll be feeling tomorrow, next week, next year? Can you conclusively dictate my potential?

And, finally, think of everyone else alive. Think of everything we've all lived through as individuals. Can you justifiably demarcate the lines of human existence?

We all have our experiences, and we all have the things that make us who we are with their aggregated impact. Everything we've ever gone through, large or small, helps define the way we think, feel and act. Concurrently, while our pasts are immutable, our futures are limited only by the caprice of fate and the choices we make in the present. Trying to put ourselves or other people in convenient little boxes, for whatever reason, is not only futile -- it's unfair. We will only end up limiting ourselves, and misjudging others.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to know who you are, and who other people are. The idea, though, is to seek the answer through living and understanding, not through labeling and judging.

Open your mind. We are all more than we seem.

[First published by Perspective, DLSU - College of St. Benilde]