Writing a ‘Who Am I’ Essay: Prompts, Tips, and Examples

An essay is a piece of text where the writer shares his opinion, views, and research on a specific topic. Whether a student or a professional writer, you will have to write essays at some point in your life. The idea is simple: you must be given an essay type and a topic from your instructor or client. You will start with researching and creating an outline before writing and proofing the contents of your essay. Although there are different types of essays with varying focal points, “Who Am I?” stands out from the crowd!

Essay Writing in Schools & Colleges

There are different types of essays that students get to write in schools and colleges. Narrative essays are about personal or hypothetical experiences and instances that might reflect certain things about the writer. Descriptive essays describe a subject, such as a place, a thing, a person, a feeling, a notion, etc., using literary devices to engage the readers. Expository writing is based on hard facts and figures with no room for personal commentary or emotions of the subject. Argumentative essays require the writers to base an opinion and then defend it using empirical evidence.

As for the “Who Am I” essay, it often deals with narrative and descriptive areas of academic writing to make it more relatable for the readers.

Prompts For Who Am I? Essays

Prompts are the alternatives to topics. Instead of giving a simple one-liner, instructors often resort to a complex question statement to assign this type of essay. This gives more depth and angles for the students to explore in their essays. More importantly, it makes students dig deeper into their minds and memories to connect the dots and pour out their hearts on the paper. For students who cannot write this essay, Eduwriter.ai is the free AI essay writing tool for them. It can produce excellent text in seconds based on simple information about the essay.

To help students tackle these prompts, we are sharing some of the most common ones with examples.

Reflecting on “Self” & “Identity”

Reflect on the concepts of self and identity while taking into account all the phases you have endured in your life.

Perception of Emotions

What is the impact of emotions and stimuli on your self-perception and self-value?

Self-Esteem & Obsessions

Discuss the evolution of self-esteem in your life while clearing that it has not turned into self-obsession.

Introspection & Interactions

Give a personal take on your introspection and social interactions in different scenarios. How do you do when you face disagreement or criticism from the ones you love?

Leadership & Team Management

What was your experience with leadership and team management roles? Are you more effective as a leader or just an expert in your trade?

Who Am I Essay Examples

Let’s go through the examples of this essay and how you can modify it according to the prompt provided by your instructor. Keep in mind that we will be keeping our essays short and direct but you will get the message without any issue.

Example: 01

Although there are only three words to the question “Who Am I?” it is the hardest one I have ever heard. Since the time I became conscious and started thinking about things, it took me a while to direct my thoughts toward myself. In the early school years when I was assigned to write this essay, I had a lot of things to talk about. Those were silly, childish things, like the tv shows, movies, clothes, food, and so on. They were meaningful to me but I did not have the words to express them.

In middle school, I started wondering about things, like emotions, perceptions, loyalty, love, hatred, and betrayal. Again, I was short on how to describe these things on a piece of paper. No doubt I had a reservoir of ideas and experiences, some were even purely fictional, but they were grounded in reality and real episodes.

Now, as a high school student, I have had my fair share of the things that I only thought about or listened to happening to others. Now, I have come to know that psychological pain is as hurtful as physical pain, sometimes more so because you cannot express it like the other one. Pain defines me as who I am and what will ever become of me.

Example: 02

Defining something is easy when you look at it from the angle of what it has or what it possesses. I want to be defined by the things that I don’t have or will never achieve or own. Whenever the question “Who am I” pops up in my assignment, I get excited because the idea of writing down all the things going through my head gets an outlet.

I want to think of myself as a living breathing vehicle of pain. From early on, I was more receptive toward the things that were morbid or hurtful. If you gave me the option of getting hurt over being happy it was my curiosity to get me into trouble. With pain and suffering, I would study what I felt and how other people responded to the same things.

Being sensitive is not an easy thing, especially when you are already struggling to survive. The winter of pain is much longer than the spring of happiness and hope. The notions of getting success or being in love even lose their charms because you know in your heart that the end to all the good things is near.

I would not call myself a pessimistic person because it has a very bad ring to it. I would call myself a realist because this is what I am.

Key Takeaways

Writing an essay where you have to delve deeper into your emotions and experiences is a tough task. Many students cannot bear the idea of searching and finding themselves through self-reflection. Yet, you need to write it because you will not only be a better writer after finishing this piece but confident in yourself. If you need any help, you can visit Eduwriter.ai to write and edit your essays.