Creating and Presenting: Student Example

EXPOSITORY PIECE

Identity and belonging is a really big ad important thing in each and everyone’s life. It’s something different for all of us. For some people it’s easy to figure out their identity and belonging but for others it’s a real challenge. Many people believe that your relationships   are important in developing your identity and belonging.

For me, I do believe that our relationships are important in developing our identity and belonging. I share a very close and loving relationship at home which I believe has played a big part in shaping my identity and belonging. My identity I see for myself is a kind, friendly, bit out there Australian/Italian. I belong to a big loving family here in Australia but I would love to go to Italy and meet more of my father’s family so that I can feel like I belong there as well. I have many relationships at school with friends that are also a big part of my identity and belonging. 

There are people who think that your culture plays a bigger role in shaping your identity and belonging. Both my father’s parents were born over in Italy and moved to Australia not knowing any of the language. They found it very hard to fit into this new land. If they tried to start a conversation  with anyone they would end up walking away confused and wondering what is wrong with them.  This is when they suddenly began to think that they don’t belong here. The language barrier between the countries made it very it very hard for them to make friends.  This meant they relied on their culture and beliefs to shape their identity and belonging. Relationships  were not important for developing their identity and belonging, it was all about their culture and beliefs.

The Text Growing Up Asian in Australia is full of stories about the issues of belonging and identity. One of my favourites to read was called “ A Call to Arms”.  The story is about a girl called Ai-ya who has never felt like she’s fit in, until one trip over to Hong  Kong. She finally doesn’t stand out, everyone looks the same as her. She says with a lot of heart, “ I felt something I had never experienced before, and something I had never consciously been seeking, acceptance.” But there was still one problem Ai-ya couldn’t speak Japanese. As soon  as she spoke people looked at her confused.  With sadness she says  “to this day  I am to some extent confused… am I more Asian or Australian.” “What’s my identity and where do I belong. “  

So do your relationships really help your develop your identity and belonging or is it something else like culture? It just might even be a bit of both. Your culture might even be making it hard for developing your identity your identity and belonging. But we all have our own different identity and belongings so we probably all have different things that are important I developing our identity and belongings.