My Life in a Jar
Traditions:
Individual Identity: Every year my family tries to take a trip back to China in order to see family. On trip back played a big role in shaping my identity. In the summer of 2012 I had the daunting task of travelling alone China. This consisted of mastering the Chinese phrases needed to guide me along the way and some way of figuring out how to transfer flights. Surprisingly the hardest part was not finding my way it was merely being alone I found that I got very lonely in the long 14 hour trip and I needed to find a way to occupy myself in order to avoid loneliness. The things I learned from being lonely help form my identity. I found that the more I tried to push away the loneliness the more it just came
The more questioning side of me, however, connects with many more people. There are many people that I know that share the belief that there is no afterlife and also enjoy the idea of taking the ideals that they like from religions and following those as opposed to strictly following one religion. In fact many of the friends that I have made today share this belief and I feel more comfortable around them than I ever have in a Buddhist temple surrounded by monks.
Global Connections: Many people across the world are Buddhist, especially those is Asian countries such as Thailand, Taiwan, and Tibet. Additionally there are even more people from all corners of the globe that share my opinions on the mix of religions. The fact that Buddhism has spread to North American regions is a great example of how globalization has made us a more multicultural society and even more so how we are able to actually combine different religions at all shows just the great impact of global connections on religion. Christianity has also spread through the world due to the European imperialist’s global connection building.

Spirituality
Individual Identity: When I was around the age of six my grandparent explained a concept to me which is roughly translated into essence. They explained it as what we are at the level of ultimate reality, beyond all the stuff of ordinary life. Essence is our true nature, our innermost being, our deepest truth. Essence is our spirit or soul. It is the