Identity

I was listening to the Diane Rehm show yesterday and she was talking to a woman named Dominique Browning, who has written a book entitled "Slow Love" about her experiences of being laid off from her high power job and the ensuing identity crisis she endured.  This got me thinking about our identities and how we maintain them.  What and who is Dan?  If I were to break it down into smaller parts, I could sum it up in multiple, simple ways.

Male
30
Single
Christian
IT Director
Pre-Med Student

In an impromptu interview with the people eating lunch at my table, I asked them how they would identify themselves.  After sharing some of the means I used above, they said they would do their identification differently in the sense that I seem to work from the outside in whereas they would identify themselves more from the inside out.  When I re-examined my list above, I realized that of all the things I initially listed, only one  (Christian) was something I held to be internal.  Does this mean I need to develop a better sense of self?  As I move forward, I would like to make an effort to examine what makes Dan Dan by looking on the inside, and I'm looking forward to learning something about myself along the way.