My Identity and How I Discovered It
Serving customers our most popular, classic, fresh, and fragrant pizza, I have learned many life lessons from my internship at a pizzeria, All of these lessons have helped shape my identity and allow me to become further aware of who I am. I am an Asian American male who continuously strives for improvement and learns from past events. During my time in the kitchen, I went from folding pizza boxes to managing storage to preparing ingredients and finally, creating pizzas. All of these tasks taught me something about myself and were sometimes influenced by my culture. The most important part of my identity is my culture, which affects my thoughts and actions. This part of my identity was passed down to me from my ancestors and plays a role in how I behave. In my culture, when you are talking to a friend or family member, communicating loudly is accepted because it shows that you are engaged and excited to see this person. One day at the pizzeria, my uncle decided to give me a call. I was surprised and started to converse with him very loudly. After he hung up, my co-worker reminded me that I wasn’t at a family gathering or private space and should tone it down next time. This was very awkward to me because I had never seen this as a problem until then. My culture had been a part of me for so long that there was not much I could do to change. Being Asian American was apart of my identity and the customs and traditions that came along with it were just unconsciously adopted. During the internship, a task that taught me an important lesson was folding pizza boxes. Every time I was asked to fold boxes, I would pick a few large, medium, and small boxes but never finish folding them all. This was because I was so disinterested, but I wanted to show I at least folded some. However, just like the real world, I learned that once you start something, you should finish it. I changed my perspective and told myself, “I already folded so many. Why not fold the rest and show I fully completed my task?” This may not always be the case but this was one significant event for me that helped shape part of my identity. Now, in most cases, I always finish what I started, whether it is something I enjoy doing or something I dislike. Being organized is another part of my identity that I discovered during this internship. When I was younger, I would always have Legos dispersed throughout the room, toys not put away, and constantly lost items. My internship in the kitchen was the final step in helping change my ways and made me an organized person. After my second day of work, I was told to go into the storage room and grab some large and heavy tin cans of tomato sauce. When I first walked into the storage room of the Pizza place, sheets of plastic were strewn all over the floor, chairs stacked one on top of the other, scattered throughout the room so there was no space to walk, and an enormous ladder blocking the pathway to the actual stored merchandise. At the sight of this, I thought back to when I was a child and thought of how much I wanted to improve. After picking up each piece of plastic, moving objects aside, taking the ladder downstairs, categorizing sodas into one section, beers in another, I reassured myself how important it was to stay organized. Being organized is a big part of my identity as that is something I pride myself on today. Honesty is another main part of my identity that helps me overcome obstacles much easier. This internship showed me that this was a part of my identity that I would always want to exhibit. After preparing all the sauces, meat, and vegetables, my next task was to get the dough ready. I was always told to put the newly rolled dough into a bucket and tuck it underneath the older rolled dough bucket. This was because we wanted to get the older dough out as soon as possible so it would still taste fresh. However, the bucket that carried the dough was too heavy for me to lift so I would put all of the newly rolled dough into the old dough bucket. Although this made it more convenient for me, it would make it more difficult later on because when taking the buckets back out to use, the other chef and I would constantly be confused on which dough was made fresh and which was made previously. After having to go through every piece of dough and checking to see which was puffier, which meant it was older, I finally realized it was easier to be honest. I told my co-worker I put all the dough into one bucket and he replied, “We all make that mistake. Next time just tell me so I can lend you a hand.” I then noticed how much easier it was to be honest and get some assistance than to keep doing something wrong by myself which could have been easily prevented. All of these events and people have played a role in helping me develop and further realize my identity. This internship was a pivotal point for me because it was this experience that helped me become who I am today. My identity as an Asian American who believes knowledge is infinite and mistakes are ok can only by changed by myself as my life progresses. My identity was developed not only just through personal experiences but was also partly passed down to me. There are some parts of my identity such as my heritage that I cannot change, but can only accept and embrace.