b'IDENTITYWhy knowing who you really are is more important than ever.T he current pandemic has been aThe stories rapidly changing situation thatsof where I changed the world as we know it;came from, beyond recognition and probablywhat that forever. meant, and consequently All we understood has suddenly become different and wewhat I am have had to adapt: fast. When huge change of any typewere told occurs around us, it challenges us. Whenever our normalconstantly, existence gets turned upside down by major events, itan ever- present always forces us to ask: Am I happy? What do I reallynarrative oozing from want? Whats important? Who am I, really? my familys every pore.But on the inside there is often a burning sense of: I knowMy parents - from two I am capable of so much more, I just know it. What I dontdiametrically opposed cultures know is how to get myself to a place where I can access it.and both extreme high achievers were both forces of nature. People The problem is our true identity is often hidden beneathfrom all over the world would often a veil of social constructs. Identity presents itself invisit us and as children, my three brothers many forms; class, upbringing, education, personality,and I were expected to entertain engagingly. From very relationship status, family, significant life events, illness orearly on I felt a huge responsibility to represent not only medical condition, connections, socioeconomic group, sex,myself, but the reputations of those who would precede me gender, race, work, career, wealth and money, nationality,as I stepped out into the world.sexuality - the list goes on. As a child I spoke to my mother in four different languages But all these forms are just constructs of who we believeand to my father in one. This too was an early example of ourselves to be. They arent an actual reality of who we are. a societal construct impacting my sense of self because True identity is the external representationI would actually change depending on the language I of our inner, deeper essence and of our veryspoke. My accent, intonation, gestures and mannerisms being. were all completely different in order to be fully understood by the particular parent I was talking to.Who I am My true identity was not rooted in any of this. It was, and As a Zimbabwean-born, Zulu Dominican, it would be easyis, something much deeper than this construct. It just took to see my own identity as the result of my cultural identity,tragedy for me to see it.family heritage and upbringing. Our family history was rifeThis came in my second year at university, when my with struggle. My Great Uncle was imprisoned in Robbenyounger brother shot himself. He had only just turned Island with Nelson Mandela. My Grandfather was one of20 and we were incredibly close. He meant the world the first in the Windrush generation to move to Britain toto me. My world crumbled and shrank to something work on the London Underground.unrecognisable. My agony was heart-breaking.04'