I'm allowed to like my readings

In a rare moment when I appreciate being an arts student...
I like all this talk about identity. It reminds me of first learning sociology back in Taylors. It MUST'VE stuck to me because I still remember quotes from 4 years ago now. How come it doesn't seem as easy in uni?

Here's a recap. My favourite symbolic interactionist, Cooley, and his Looking-Glass theory:

I am not what I think I am
I am not what you think I am
I am what I think that you think I am.

Ever thought of it that way? You make yourself out to suit what others think. And you will never really know what others think, you'll just have a perception of what you think they are thinking. I think that is such a clever theory...

But anyway, I read newer things... like this article that talks about awareness:

Awareness creates potential change, and may actually induce change in and through itself. For instance, the question, 'Are you aware of your breathing right now?', at least when first posed, usually produces an instantaneous change.

(Giddens, 1991, p. 71)

Haha... how's your breathing right now? Suddenly conscious of it right? The first time i read the paragraph i was inhaling and exhaling deeply throughout the article. Haha.. Hate it when the books are right.

But here's the one that I really liked. It's gloriously long and I don't really expect anyone to have read right up to here (boy, you must be bored. Haha.. if i said whoever reads this gets me to cook for them, i wonder how many will take me up on that?)

People who fear the future attempt to 'secure' themselves - with money, property, health insurance, personal relationships, marriage contracts. Parents attempt to bind their children to them. Some fearful children are reluctant to leave the home nest... The harsh psychological truth is that there is no permanence in human relationships, any more than there is in the stock market, the weather, 'national security' and so on... this clutching at security can be very discouraging to interpersonal relationships, and will impede your own self-growth. The more each of us can learn to be truly in the present with our others, making no rules and erecting no fences for the future, the stronger we will be in ourselves and the closer and happier in our relationships.

(Giddens, 1991, p. 73)

*phew* what a mouthful. But i really believe it though. Delude myself into thinking that I am going back to Malaysia because I am confident enough in myself to not be tied down into the whole PR business.

Final quote to emphasise my point:

... the paradox is that until we give up all the feels secure, we can never really trust the friend, mate, or job that offers us something. True personal security does not come from without, it comes from within

(Giddens, 1991, p. 78)

Oh my, hasn't this post been a window into my non-commital self?
Betrays the questions that plague me as the future looms ahead.