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In September 6, we talked about the elements that shapes people’s identities, including “age, developmental or acquired disability, religion and spiritual orientation, ethnicity and racial identity, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, indigenous heritage, national origin, and gender.” (PLA, 2016) What do you think are the most important elements that influences your life? What can provide the precise explanations to illustrate who you are as a person now? Personally, my ethnicity and racial identity, age, socioeconomic status are influential toward my life.

 

I am a Taiwanese and I stand for Taiwanese independence. Taiwan is officially recognized as Republic of China. This causes the dangerous and difficult situation for Taiwan to survive in the international governmental environment. As a Taiwanese, I feel the emergency to protect my country, which shapes and leads me to the United States. I have to strengthen myself, and find the answer to improve the situation. With this hope, I am a student who is not just “interested in learning” but “has to learn.”

 

Additionally, I come from a generation full of inspirations and changes. Since I have engaged in a series of social campaigns, I am always regarded as the “pure” voice that stands for the new generation due to my age. As a college student, I can speak out without fear of external pressures. These are the reasons that people prefer “student movement” to “social movement.” Even though I do not agree with the belief that there is a different purity among ages, being young, irrefutably, gives me the advantage to speak out for myself.

 

My social-economic status gives me the chance to do what I want to do. I am really lucky to be born in a middle-class family that can support my dream. I am able to speak out without fear, to go to the college in U.S., to access to a variety of opportunities… These are all thanks to my parents. I have friends who have to give up their dreams because of financial problems. I have partners who have to hide their faces in campaigns because of the worry to lose their jobs. These problems are real and crucial. It is such fortunate that I am a person that do not have to face these problems. I must always be thankful and take this huge advantage to devote into my dreams.

 

There was a time that I almost felt the death. I experienced a huge turbulence during the flight to U.S.. At that moment, all I thought about is my country. I felt the obligation to be alive and to grow. I felt the importance that my country be in my life. I believe my ethnicity as a Taiwanese, my age with full of passion and my socioeconomic status which provides me opportunities are shaping me as who I am now.

Presidential Leadership Academy (Sep. 6, 2016) Lesson 5