Becoming a blueprint

As a teenager, I searched for an identity and found it with music, inside gaming subcultures and the things I consumed. I could assign a role to myself and people would recognize me as someone from that group. It defined me through my clothing, the things I talked about and my social media presence. It was an easy way to find a place in the world at a time when my self-identity was not yet carved in stone, and still forming. As adults, we still carry such labels with us. It is cognitively easier to assign someone a role with all the attributes that come with it according to our definition of that role. We have an easier time making sense of a person when they fit into a well-defined category, even if in reality they do not possess many of these attributes. Merging with a role I want to live up to a certain role. But only if I think that the role carries positive or neutral annotations with it. It is still something that shapes my identity, but unlike when I was younger, I am not able…