Identities

Different contexts accentuate different parts of my identity. For example, when I am at church I accentuate my religious identity. At church, I pray, sing Christian hymns and other religious songs, and refer to people around me as brother or sister. Outside church, I rarely do any of this, and if I do, it is to a much lesser extent. Music is an important part of my accentuated religious identity, particularly the singing part, because music at church is live. My mom has various Christian CDs at home, but I don't sing along with those. Live music at church allows me to really feel the songs and makes me want to sing. Since this only happens at church, this part of my religious identity is mainly accentuated in this context.

Another example would be that my home environment accentuates my cultural identity. This is especially true at family parties, where we loudly play and dance to Mexican music. When I'm at other places, like school for instance, I do listen to that kind of music but it's not the same. I feel that being at home surrounded by people of my same culture playing and dancing to our music brings out more of the Mexican in me.