Most of what we think we are, we’ve been told. Some of it sticks, some of it doesn’t. Some things we hear about ourselves, we embrace wholeheartedly, while a fight may ensue because of others. And then there are the ones we hear so often, for so long, that they become part of us. We live as though they are truths written in stone. But they are shifting and can be easily washed away by time and experience. Like words traced in sand.
As human beings, we’re shaped by the stories others tell us about ourselves, and those we tell ourselves. Arising from moments of triumph but more often, they’re born of failures. Because, well, human beings.
But here’s the thing; there’s no single word, no single label that can capture the complexity of a human being. Impatient with a colleague, boundless patience with family. Brutally honest with our closest friends, shrinking in silence with strangers. And nothing wrong with this.
And we don’t need to fit neatly into one description. Don’t have to act calm and peaceful just because we’re described that way. Don’t have to act stoic in the face of calamities and stresses just cause we’ve been called impassive or emotionally detached.
Let us just be. Release the need to be describable. Letting go of the desire to live up to words that were never truly ours to begin with. What’s built on sand may be fleeting, but it is also evolving and endlessly unique and in that, there’s strength.
NdukuOutLoud 
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