Who am I ?

 "Who am I ?" I think it is the core question which we are going to be asking ourselves throughout the semester. When I think of the answers to the question, things that come up in my mind are such as, name, gender, age, nationality, profession, social status, hobbies, etc. So my answer is going to be something similar as this: "My name is Arisa Ono. I am 21years old and I am Japanese. I have no siblings and I am currently studying at ICU. I love reading, traveling and playing sports, especially Yoga and jogging."
But does this really answer the question ? I think it does explain about me in some ways, however, I also think that there are many parts of me that cannot be explained by this answer.  I believe that we are made not only of what we currently possess, but also of the things that we have had before, such as the path we have gone through or memories and experiences from the past. In my case, books that I read in my childhood have left great influence on me and I can still feel their effects on who am I today. When I was little I read almost any kinds of books that were around me. After reading all the children's books in my house, I went to a small library nearby, which is a minute walk from the house,  and as I grew older and entered elementary school,  I started to use school library and municipal library. Now I spent a great amount of time at university library, partly because I have to deal with tons of assignments, but mainly for to walk around the shelves for the purpose of finding interesting books that I have never seen or heard of. I also love going to huge book stores and book cafes in Tokyo. It is frighting even just to think of it, but if I didn't read books in my childhood,I wouldn't have had this great hobby, which I think can entertain me throughout my life.
 My love of books gave me interests in various fields, from the Greek mythology to astronomy (it doesn't necessarily mean that I understood the books on astronomy at that time). I often read bibliographies of important historical figures and illustrated reference books of flowers and plants, stars, insects, animals, dinosaurs, etc. I think reading books in various fields made me curious and open to learn and accept new things.