Blog #6: Identities

In our everyday lives we rotate between many identities based on which communities we associate ourselves with in a given time. In the examples given by Prof. Flewelling she explains that her roles as a professor online, in class and in the writing center as well as her roles as a colleague, mom, wife etc. are rotated about. These roles each express a unique identity that she possesses, and associated with each of these identities is a uniques discourse that is learned through affiliation with the identified community. 

In my own case the way I express myself as a student now differs that I am a student at San Diego States University. Now that my classes have become more specialized towards my major I more specifically as a civil engineering major. Towards the end of my time at San Diego Mesa College I had a more generalized identity as an engineering major, and before that I lumped myself in as a general STEM major. Like Flewelling's differing roles as a professor are similar yet different, my role as a student has been altered yet I retain many of the qualities associated with each discourse; and thus each role contributes to who I am, to my Identity.  

Though there are many benefits in being a part of a multitude of discourse communities there are things to be couscous about and costs associated with them. Johns provides a few examples of this in her text. One being the case of her husbands affiliation with a cycling community. The members of this community share a common interest in cycling their views on politics my differ, and expressed contradicting views may lead to tension within the community. The second example she uses Richard Rodriguez’s conflict between his discourse in his academic community and  that of his family. Although new discourses do grow an individual’s set of identities, the values associated with newly established identities may contradict and could potentially deteriorate the ties with one or more of one’s identity. 

In my own case my identity as a student has clashed with the some of the values of my family holds. One example of this my family’s preference to save money and stay close to one-and-other. I didn’t leave home for college partly due to the large costs associated with housing and other living expenses, but now after hearing about the life lessons some of my friends have experiences I wish I would have put more thought into it. My sister on the other hand, who just recently graduated high school and got accepted to CalPoly San Luis Obispo had the chance to experience living without our parents. My parents weren’t too excited about her leaving, and made the argument that I would be better for her to stay in San Diego for school. I didn’t want my sister to miss out on this aspect of college like I did, so I stood up for her and supported her decision to leave. This created tension within out family until my parents finally accepted the fact that she was leaving.