When I was in high school, I was an athlete.

I was a slacker of a student, but a pretty darn good athlete. Most days, I wore a track suit or sweats to school. I put my energy into track workouts and the weight room. For fun, I hit the basketball courts, tennis courts, or soccer field.

I thought I was an athlete, but I wasn’t.

At the end of college, I decided that I had to do something with my life. I took a computer architecture course which enthralled me, and proceeded to jump into grad school. I went full steam ahead with research and academia, on track to become a professor. In the meantime, I also fell out of shape.

In grad school, I became an academic.

And, I thought I’d be an academic, until I realized that I wasn’t.

Two years ago, I did soul searching and realized that I wanted to get out into the world and build something. I quit my job, and ventured out on my own. Shortly after, I went to my LinkedIn profile, removed ‘Senior Researcher’ and replaced it with ‘Entrepreneur’.

I became an entrepreneur, and remain an entrepreneur to this day.

Except if history repeats itself, the lesson to learn is that I am not an entrepreneur.

What is in these identities? Why do we label ourselves, and label others?

I only know that we aren’t our labels. We are simply what we are thinking, what we are doing, and what we aspire to be at a particular moment. And in the next moment, everything might change.

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P.S. This is post number #38 in a 100 day blogging challenge. See you tomorrow!

Follow me on Twitter: @alexshye.

Or, check out my current project Soulmix.