How Cultural Programming Shapes Who We Think We Should Be

The Scripts We Inherit

From the moment we are born, culture begins writing scripts for us. Be a good child. Be productive. Be attractive. Be successful. These programs teach us not only who we should be — but who we should hide.

The Cost of Following the Script

When we follow these scripts without question, we may look “successful” on the outside while feeling unseen on the inside. Because who’s being seen? The real self, or the programmed self?

Breaking Free

To be seen is to question the programming. To ask: Who am I when no one is watching? Who am I when I stop trying to fit the script?

Journal Reflection

• What cultural scripts shaped you growing up?

• Which ones still define how you show yourself to others?

• What would it mean to step off the script and be seen as yourself?

Seen is a place to disrupt the programming gently, with curiosity, until the real you can emerge.