We all have unique personalities. We all have unique lifestyles. We all have unique fingerprints. Most people would agree that all of us here on earth are INDIVIDUALS.

Yet, we are essentially mirrors of our upbringing. Our personalities may be unique, but they are really just reflections of our favorite parts of personalities we have seen, from friends/family/celebrities/etc. Our lifestyles are decided by our genetic tastes, socioeconomic class, and what we have been exposed to and chosen to incorporate into our lives. Our fingerprints are formed a certain way depending on the fingerprints of our parents. Our basic selves (genetic things like hair color, skin tone, facial structure, stature, voice, etc) are totally influenced by whichever two random people decided to have a child. Random chance decides your gender and sexual orientation. These two things are HUGE in shaping personality. Even things such as music and movies that we love are beyond our control (though much less so nowadays thanks to the internet) because we can only love what we have been exposed to, and other people control what we are exposed to.

In essence, what I am trying to say is that who you are is not your choice at all. You are a mirror of your environment.

Even when it comes down to decision making, I believe that the decisions you make are influenced by the experiences you have had and what you've learned from them. The experiences you've had depended on your location, which if you were born into a family like most people, was decided by your parents. Also, what pieces of advice others have given you.

You have to also keep in mind that all of these other people influencing every part of your life are having every part of their life being influenced by everyone/thing else also. So, what are our psyches but a huge web of influence? Kind of like how they say that there's no such thing as a totally new song.

But obviously we all live individual lives. We really are UNIQUE, as outlined above. We are a mirror of everything that has influenced us, but there is still something that has to decide what is liked among everything we are exposed to (which is a LOT). What is this? Is it genetic or learned? Does it change, or do we simply get more in tune to it as we grow older and settle into more "preferred" or "customized" lifestyles as we move into our own place/ get smarter/ grow up/ mature? Is it actually our mind calling the shots, or an illusion of influence like the rest of our "selves"?

Mostly we swim through culture like fish through water, so immersed we are unaware of the medium itself.

Most of our beliefs and assumptions are culture bound and pretty arbitrary from any outside point of view.

Nations, religions, commerce, progress... it's mostly just stuff someone else made up.

I have an identical twin. Essentially we are genetic equals, yet our personalities (at least from an outside perspective are quite different). My brother is considered to be rather high strung and quite manic while Im considered to be the more laid back one. People have always labeled my brother as having a more creative lean, while I have always been seen as the "intellectual" one. He is a documentary film maker and I am a pediatric nurse. The list of superficial differences go on and on from favorite colors to taste in music etc. To seal the deal he is left handed (evil twin) while I am right handed.

We both grew up in the same house and were pretty much always together yet we are considered to be dramatically different. I think this is because some twins have a drive to differentiate themselves from each other. Growing up me and my brother would essentially "claim" the things we liked before the other one could do so. When my brother showed a profound interest in movies and began to express that I began to show a huge interest in music. When I said my favorite color was red, not wanting to copy me he choose green, and this type of thing continued for about all of our interests. In fact our Myers Briggs personally types are the exact opposite (save for us both being intuitive types).

I'm not trying to make a point with all of this, it's just food for thought. Take it for what it's worth.