Who am I?

Who am I?

As a high school varsity football player, I could be found in the popular jock crowd, not to be confused with the “burn outs,” “the bandies,” “the nerds” or “drama jocks.”

In college I was a loner, in medical school a gunner, in residency a survivor. I’ve been called an up and comer, a senior statesman, a marketer, a follower, a disruptor and a sap.

I’ve been labeled conservative and progressive, an explorer and a domesticator. I’ve been defined as a surgeon as well a dermatologist, a visionary, short sighted, a hero, a goat, an artist, writer, philosopher, speaker, academician and businessman.

I’ve been labeled a faithful husband and a confused divorcee, an absent father as well as a doting dad, a supportive boyfriend and an insensitive mate.

I don’t think I have ever been one way or fulfilled one type. And I don’t see myself that much different from anyone else.

We are all a mix of multiple attributes that are fluid dynamic and constantly in motion. I cannot nor want to distill myself down to a four -letter acronym because the real risk is starting to believe it.

We may all be suspect to absorbing general assumptions and believing it relates. And ultimately then fulfilling that pre-paved destiny.

When we categorize and label others it supports quick declaratives such as, “People don’t change.” But maybe they do. And if you seal off another and don’t grant them the benefit of the doubt you limit your own personal growth.

It is the absence of a label, definable boundaries and harnessing acronyms that gives us the freedom to explore, change and develop. Be advised, though it requires self-awareness an open mindedness and a willingness to be vulnerable that one capture their true power.

So please don’t define me and don’t tell me you know how I think or how I will act. I have changed, I will change, I am strong, yet malleable and at this moment, I am not entirely who you think I am nor who I think I am. Rather, I prefer the words of a famous undefinable who once said, “Iam who Iam.”

And that is all I am.

-Steve Dayan