I am not “very” anything!

 A senior colleague in one of my workplaces in the United Kingdom once told me: you are not “very” British. It came after he observed that I was speaking my mind and saying frankly anything that comes into my mind that other people only think.

As I was walking home today, for some reasons, I remembered my colleague’s remark. It put me in deep thinking where I realized, I never was “very” anything, indeed.

Being born in Afghanistan, I am not considered “very” Afghan for countless reasons. I defy systematic patriarchal elements of the Afghan culture personally and academically. In fact, I am doing a PhD for that reason.

I have never been “very” Pakistani either. In a country that I lived for approximately twelve years where I finished my high school, their culture and religious convictions could never confine me. I never fit into the idea of “very” Pakistani.

I have never been “very” German. Living for approximately three years and completing a post-graduate degree while regularly interacting with Germans did not transform me to “very” German either.

I have never been “very” American despite living in America for almost three years. I shared a house with wonderful American friends, studied and worked with American fellows, and was taught by American professors.

Some people might call it identity crisis. I see it as part of an unfathomable complex human nature. We are all part and parcel of a complex process of becoming that cannot be limited spatially and temporally. However, I constantly try to become “very” human and that is what matters above all!