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by Arethinn
August 2004

(in response to someone's post)

It looks like you've posted similarly vague questions in a couple other forums on the board. I am just guessing here, so correct me if I am wrong, but it looks to me like you are in a "I feel like I'm something, but have really no idea what, only a few vague leanings" state of mind, and are therefore looking for lists of characteristics to compare yourself against so you can decide what you are.

I don't mean to sound rude, but I don't think that's a good idea. Knowledge of what you are may come slowly, but it has to come from inside somewhere, not from looking at a list and going "well, I have these characteristics, so that must be it!" That way lies delusion. An apple and a fire truck are both red, but they are not the same thing. Actually, to add confusion to the matter, both apples and fire trucks can be other colours as well. This analogy extends well to "characteristics" of various species. For example, an elf and a dragon are both arrogant (going with a stereotype here), but they're not the same thing. And other beings can be arrogant as well.

You're a person, an individual. I think this comparing to lists of characteristics is why we get so many people identifying as odd hybrids or several things at the same time nowadays: they start going, "ok, I'm an elf" but then say "but I also like to hoard jewelry, so I must also be a dragon", and then "and I'm flighty and playful, so I must also be a pixie", etc, rather than treating these traits as just that, personality traits that make them a unique person and lay colour on top of that base of "what they are" (and skipping the possibility that things can also come from the probably-human life they're living at the moment).

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