E-dentity Crisis

I'm having an e-dentity crisis.

I'm having an e-dentity crisis because of what I found when I "Googled" myself. When I "Googled" myself I expected to find standard results such as my social media accounts and links to articles from my high school or youth symphony, but I never expected to find my name linked to my brother's.

In this picture, my brother William just looks like a goofy dude. However, William is practically a genius. In 2010 he was awarded the Rhodes Scholarship, a scholarship given to 32 students across the United States to help them pursue a degree at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom gratis. William also won the Boettcher Scholarship during his senior year of high school, receiving a full-ride to any 4-year institution in the state of Colorado.

My brother is an extremely intelligent and hard-working individual, along with an exceptionally loving brother. I am honored to be his sister, but I am also so tired of constantly living in his shadow. I have been called "William's sister" more times than I can count, and I am honestly sick of it. When you type "Rebekah Gohl" into the Google search engine, you are linked to William Gohl's profile on the Rhodes Scholarship website. I cannot escape from the title of "William's sister," even on the worldwide web.

So I decided to start exploring my Facebook and Instagram photos to see what other titles I have on the Internet. The pictures below display my role as a friend, sister, cousin, daughter, and student. I like having all of these roles. They demonstrate my desire to be a loving person and a positive contribution to my immediate community.

We all have roles in society. However, being placed in these roles on the Internet bothered me for some reason. I do not like to be thought of as "Peter's sister" or "John and Mary's daughter" or "Natalie's cousin." All of these titles describe part of who I am, but they do not express my whole self. I like to be thought of as Rebekah Gohl, a unique individual.  It seems that even on social media, I cannot escape from society's labels.

So what does all of this mean? I think it reinforces the idea that you cannot judge a book by its cover. Sure, I am "John and Mary's daughter" and "William's sister," but I am a much more unique individual than a set of titles and labels. If you look deeper into my profiles, you will discover my ceaseless passion for music and my growing faith. You will discover how I want to keep trying to be a better person, even though I know I am far from perfect. You will also discover how much I love the people I am blessed to have in my life. These aspects, along with my titles of "sister" or "daughter" or "friend," make up my true identity. As in real life, our e-dentities are defined not solely by what appears on the surface, but also by what lies underneath. Both in social media and real life, we need to look beyond the titles and faces of people to discover and appreciate who they truly are underneath it all.