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Social sorting keeps us from becoming the people we were meant to be.

What you really are, can’t be classified by anyone but you. Your social status is a mental abstraction. It may be collective, but it is still an abstraction.

When you were in high school, you weren’t a jock, a burnout, a punker, a wannabe, a jell, a freak, a geek, a nerd, a preppie, a brain, or any other classification.

Social sorting happens early and often in our government schools. They were designed as a factory sorting system using scientific management. While the people have changed and the cosmetics have changed the base system is no different. It starts with the first pre-K screening and never ends. My file was paper and is probably long gone (I’ve asked for it and they can’t find it), but today the labels assigned to you will stick in a computer forever. The problem with this system is breaking free from the labels that bind you. The place you break free is in your own mind.

I find forms that ask for race particularly offensive. I usually check “other” and write in “human.” That really pisses off bureaucrats. They think I’m being a smart ass when I am being honest.

You aren’t what someone names you. You aren’t what you’ve done. You aren’t a diagnosis or a disease or a disorder. You aren’t how much money you have. You aren’t your test scores or your wins and losses. You are what you choose to do next.