A Treasure Found at Home

I spent some time last night trying to find a picture or two to submit for the photo directory for my community. I couldn’t decide. Most of my pictures of me got lost in the Great Hard Drive Crash of 2005 (GHDC05). I managed to find five photos where I wasn’t pushed right up against someone else and you could see me.

I cropped them just to show my face.

I look completely different in every shot! My hair color and cut is not consistent from one photo to the next. I don’t know which looks most like me–I don’t know what I look like! Glasses, no glasses? Short short hair, long short hair? Red, bleached or ashy?

I also have trouble knowing how to answer when people realize there is a selections of names to use when referencing me, and they ask my preference. I don’t have one. Call me whichever of the many names available is most comfortable for you.

I think I don’t have a stable idea of who I am. And then the question becomes: Do I need to have that much of an idea of who I am?

At the retreat someone mentioned they didn’t know much about me. “Who are you?” he asked.

“Um…I’m just [Sparkle],” I said.

I do a lot more than just that, but are those things *who* I am? Is what I look like who I am? Is my name, or nickname, really who I am when it comes down to it?

What is your first thought when someone asks you who you are?