It’s said that we are what we do when nobody is looking, and while I agree, I too believe we are fragmented people with tweaked personalities. We are different when we are alone; we are different with different friends and family. We seem to mold to people depending on how we relate to them. We do have core beliefs and act accordingly,

but we can’t be the same in all our social interactions. As with colleagues, our supervisors, and the people who are not too intimately linked to us.

When we are alone, we relax, let our guards down and this is when we are ourselves to ourselves. Try telling a friend who you believe you are and they will probably agree to a point, but in your relationship with them, you’ll be surprised at what they see that you don’t. Maybe both takes are right.

Just as I believe I’m introverted, extremely shy, and easily fall prey to hiding from the world at any chance I get, friends wouldn’t see me this way. Maybe it’s a distortion, but when left alone we have our secret lives and thoughts we don’t air, and often hide in fear of not being accepted or even believed. Or just because we need a space to reflect and come back “home,” take a breath and go back into the word and mingle, tweaking who we are depending on whom we are interacting with.

They say: Be you, be real! But is this practical? Would the results be positive? Shouldn’t we decide to adjust to people and circumstances, by being our different fragmented edited selves?

It takes a lifetime to figure out who we are, and especially who we are with others. We are all those people, the person we see in the dark of night at the end of the day and the one who wakes up and joins the word every day. The road of self-discovery is hard, and you will be surprised at how many different definitions of yourself you’ll find. Yet, it’s an exciting journey.