What makes "me" me?

How would I know? I don’t know you.

That sounds like a “nature vs. nurture” argument. This controversy states those aspects of us that define us come from one of two places: either they are innate (natural), such as genetic traits passed from your parents, or they are gleaned from experiences you had growing up (i.e. how you were nurtured).

The question at hand in the “nature vs. nurture” argument is which aspect is more prevalent in our personalities. There is no question that who we are ‘physically’ can be directly traced to genetics, but is our sentience and personality acquired the same way? Will we inherit our personal tendencies from our parents, or is it a matter of external stimulation in our formative years?

Personally, I lean on the “nurture” side. While I do tend to look at some situations in the same way as my parents (for example, I inherited my mother’s tendency to become inexplicably stressed before guests arrive), most of what makes me me I think comes from experiences I had growing up.

It’s your personailty. All your mannerisms and quirks. It’s how you look, how you look at yourself, the world. It’s your actions, how you speak, your thoughts. It’s everything you do and don’t do. It’s everything you say or don’t say. This is what makes you you.

The semi-permeable membrane known as your skin. Without it, you’d be a set of bones bleaching in the sun somewhere (or mouldering under a pile of dead leaves in the woods, or on the couch in your living room, I suppose, depending on where you had lost your skin). The rest is just attitudes, emotions, sensations, memories and ideas. You can lose most of that, but don’t lose your skin!

Plus it hurts like a bitch.

Your brain.

Your personality.

Nothing—Christine O’Donnell is you too.

Your DNA. Everything else is probably similar to at least some people in the world. When we make societies that have cultures, this brings similar experiences to those people inside it. Unless you have experienced something that no one ever has, then you are not special. Your feelings though as individual because you can only feel your own physical self. This is why I think so many people think they are different from others. But when it comes down to it, the only thing that sets you completely apart from other people is your DNA, and your fingerprints I guess.

This doesn’t mean you can’t figure out what kind of a person you are. You dont have to put yourself in a stereotype, but you can ask yourself, what do I value, what do I enjoy, what other kinds of traits of other people do I like. Personalities are made up of all these things and more.