What's in a name?

Who are we?

The other day, I asked myself, "Who am I?". Of corse I knew the answer, I am Adam Parison, but who exactly is Adam Parison? What defines us as people to ourselves and the outside world? Am I really Adam Parison?

To everyone else, Adam Parison is an actor, singer, and a guy who tries to make everyone happy. Is Adam Parison really that person? Who we are to the outside world --our names-- are given to us at birth. Our parents decide that the name that was handed to us will be who we are, but how can we as humans be defined by a name; that cannot be who we are. The aformentioned idea of course begs the question, "How can we really discover who we are when we've already been told that we are__________ since birth?" Are our names not limiting to our identity as people?

In turn, the identity we do form gets connected to our names. Like I said earlier, people think of Adam Parison as an actor and a singer. It is my beleif that it is very possible that these identifications and their relations to my name limits me as a person. If I were to take up baseball or soccer, people would think that was strange, because it is not related to my name.

Our names act as shackles to our person. They bind us to an identity that can become extremely difficult to change in our own and other people's minds. I am not suggesting we rid ourselves of names, they are important for numerous purposes--none of which i care to discuss here. However, instead of our names telling people who we are, only use them for purposes of identification, not definition.