The puzzle of being you

I never liked raw onions when I was younger. They had a strong flavour that made my eyes sting when I bit into them. Their purple hue and stringy appearance would immediately send me into a spiral, and I would pick them out of salads all the time. However, I’d watch my family eat onions with their food every night and eventually began trying them, realising they weren’t so bad after all. Soon, I became the biggest onion enthusiast in my household, contrary to my stubbornness from before. This was one of many changes that have happened as I have grown up - and I have no doubt that many more such changes are yet to come.This raises an important question: if I am no longer the head of the Onion-Hate-Club™️, and that part of my identity was such an important marker of me at a certain point in time, then am I still me? When we change the combination of constituents that make up who we are, how can the label of ‘me’ still stand for something so different?The paradox Representational image. In Greek mythology, Minos was a powerful ruler of Crete and was the son of god Zeus and Europa. Every nine years, King Minos would send fourteen children to be eaten by the Minotaur. Theseus rescued these children and slew the Minotaur before escaping on a ship to Delos. Every year after that, the Athenians would commemorate this journey with a pilgrimage on the same ship. As these regular journeys went by, various parts of the ship rotted and fell apart. Thus, each year, some of its parts were replaced - and eventually every part of it had been changed out. This raised the question represented by this paradox: if every piece of the ship had been changed, what made it the Ship of Theseus?When we are young, we are constantly evolving. I’m sure all of us have forgotten interests we once had and adopted new parts to our identities – transforming from fingerpainting to essay-writing is no small pivot. These changes are influenced by factors such as friendships and social media.Are you still you?However, the Ship of Theseus paradox raises an important question about the moral stance of this rapid change that we are constantly undergoing: Are you still ‘you’ when everything about yourself from five years ago is different about you today? Is it your name and age, or the set ‘labels’ of who you are that define you? Or is it about what you like and dislike, what interests you, your personal value system?I believe that the ship’s materials do not prove its title as ‘Theseus’ Ship. As we continue to grow and change throughout adulthood, the idea of ‘me’ cannot stay fixed - as your constituents shift, so does that label. However, finding interests that define and ground you, and combining those parts of you with the constantly evolving elements of your identity is exactly what helps you cultivate the type of person you become while upholding and creating a ‘base’ of your identity to branch out from.(The author is a Class 10 student based in Chennai and a contributor to The Hindu Teen Digest.) Published - September 08, 2026 02:50 pm IST