#identity-development

#identity-development

The origin of the word "identity" comes from the Latin identitas and suggests "sameness with others," that is, our identity is both an individual self-concept and a collective one. Identity forms early in life and is fluid, evolving, and contextual. This is my hand, my foot, my voice, my dream, but I am also a we. I identify with an ethnicity, a gender or non-binary, a nationality, politics, class, occupation, and sexual identity.

Human beings respond deeply to symbolic time. The turning of the year does more than mark a date on the calendar. It creates a psychological pause, a moment of space between what has already been lived and what has not yet taken shape. Carl Jung viewed personality development as an unfolding process rather than a fixed state. He described psychological growth as emerging through the integration of unconscious material into conscious awareness, gradually expanding the personality.

I have always thought the phrase "Hire a teenager while they still know everything" was a very clever sentence. It works on the premise that teens think they always know best and, therefore, think they "know everything." It may be funny, yet it belies a real truth, which is that teens often act as if they know more than they do. Think about the last time you tried to instruct an adolescent about something.