A Point of View: Puzzling over Authenticity

I have been puzzling over what it means to be truly authentic. What are the rules of authenticity? How does one know if they are being authentic? Who decides our authenticity? It’s a loaded term. Many of us likely struggle with knowing our true, authentic selves, and the way we, as humans, have divided ourselves for centuries into separate and distinct groups makes the issue more complex. Our society is divided into groups for which we carry identity, pride, and sometimes loyalty – but the divisions within ourselves are often not as clear cut.

How can one practice authenticity when their identity is connected to two distinct cultures?  As a biracial woman, how can I be authentic to one aspect of my identity without selling short the other?  The goal is to be authentic to my whole self– which means honoring the “whole” of who I am.  

Authenticity is becoming more complex in a world where we can easily take an ancestry test to tell us what percentage of us comes from where. Some of us are puzzles containing multiple pieces. If a person chooses to highlight a part of themselves that may represent a small percentage of who they are biologically, they are still representing a part of themselves.  There are no rules for what authenticity means in this country but there is strong sentiment against willingly denying a part of your being. You can’t remove puzzle pieces and still expect a true complete picture. 

 My authenticity is knowing and accepting all the different parts of myself, and recognizing if, why, and when I may choose to represent or highlight specific parts of my being. That is a personal decision and affirmation of who I am. We need to change the narrative that suggests honoring one aspect of our identity means that we are rejecting our others. We are a nation of immigrants. For almost all of us, our collective identities do not point to one specific place, religion, race, or ideology.  A person should not be apologetic if they choose to show pride in a small part of themselves, because that is who they are.  

So, I’ll pose the question again: what does it mean to be authentic? It means being 100% unapologetic and bringing all your puzzle pieces to the table because you need all your pieces to complete the picture that is you.