Writer's Block Magazine

Recently, while in my Contemporary World Literature class, a quote that had a certain relation to the point I was making came to my mind. I could not figure out the author at the moment; but later I found out that it was philosopher José Ortega y Gasset. He said “I am me and my circumstance, and if I don’t save it I don’t save myself” (Meditaciones del Quijote). This  idea I have always found equally hopeful and disturbing.

What Ortega y Gasset meant is that a person’s identity encapsulates something inherent to themselves, but also the milieu in which they are born. And one cannot really exist without the other. For me, dwelling into this idea implies falling under the chicken or the egg paradox: am I the way I am because my environment disposed so, or was I inevitably meant to be me whatever the circumstance? Do I make choices to change my reality as I try to adapt it to my personality? Some circumstances cannot be changed, most people cannot escape them or regulate them at their will; which makes the first idea  seem more plausible. Circumstances shape us, and they themselves can take different forms. For any reader of this magazine, circumstances have probably been favourable in some aspects, and unfavourable in others. Measuring the effect of a certain influence can only be left to each individual, for our environment is made of decisions, people, places and experiences. Unfortunately, this can imply poverty, famine, war, abuse… Reflecting on the casualty of all of this can help to feel more grateful about what we were casually born into. To even be able to read and write, to sit in a warm place, to have food in the stomach. Of course, there are many more circumstances that define who we are, apart from the most primal. But when viewing circumstances as the only cause for identity, a different question is raised: what is there in me, that is truly me? Am I strictly a result of my parents meeting each other, the place I was born into and the people that I have encountered through life? I would argue that siblings deny it, especially the ones that share friend groups; or were born at the same time: twins, triplets. Their interests will probably differ, though their circumstance is the exact same. Their personalities vary.

Nevertheless, a reason that makes me question the “inherentness” position, is that I do not like to believe in fate. I do not enjoy adjudicating my accomplishments in this life to predestination, for I love being passionate about my interests and pursuing them, and I love making an effort and seeing it being recognised. This does not mean that I cannot see the opposite viewpoint, and certainly, fate, religion and predestination have always been tightly tied to identity, and will probably continue to be. There is something undeniably soothing in the perspective that what is meant for you will find you, even if you lose it along the way, if you make mistakes or do not have the means to look for it. However, in this case, I could give determinism a chance. The “me” part of Ortega y Gasset’s quote cannot be separated from the rest. It is, in fact, the opening, undeniable, present. And I think circumstances could be argued (hardly), but presence cannot. There is a “me”, it can be more or less thought, it can be well or poorly defined. But it remains there. And for people who are very passionate about their interests, goals and dreams, it is even more clear that they are meant for something. Not because they are the best in the area, but because it is their whole life, their reason to exist. And these huge passions can be hidden, but they will probably resurrect eventually. Examples are shown continuously in media, such as the film Billy Elliot; and in real life, like Taylor Swift: she had always wanted to be a singer. It might even be the case that those desires that drive some are also circumstantial. If Taylor Swift had not been born in a specific environment, with her basic necessities covered, maybe she could not have dreamt of doing music for a living. She is her and her circumstance.

So yes, circumstances can define and concretise who and what we are. However, since the most basic are as impossible to control as our own birth, the rest of our identity we construct – it is left to ourselves. The circumstances that we can modify, the dreams that we want to pursue, the principles that we align with. I personally like to picture the human soul as having concentric layers to it, where the most superficial ones evolve through life, but the deepest one remains the same and constitutes who a person is. The more you connect with that identity and understand it, the more you can make circumstances adapt to it. 

Written by Raquel Rodríguez Mulero