Who you are and What you are

         The latest episode for My Little Pony Friendship is Magic focused on Spike and walked through his journey to discover who he is and what he is capable of. He found other dragons, and tried to learn the things they do and fit in with the crowd. He discovered that just because he was a dragon, he didn't have to or want to act like one. Spike decided who he was by doing what he enjoyed instead of what was expected of him due to his label.
          Labels can be a positive or negative thing. By giving someone a general title, specific expectations are related to that name. A worker is expected to work, a student is expected to study and an artist is expected to create art. Other labels like jock, nerd and prep have nothing to do with who a person is, unless they choose to make the label become who they are. Once you put a label on a person, they become a one dimensional persona in your mind. Whether the persona is good or bad depends on your acknowledgement of people. People give themselves labels to define who they are, especially if they are judgmental of  others and want to create a specific clique to belong to.
          Even if you enjoy activities associated with the label of prep, nerd or jock, the label itself will  never be who you truly are. Spike learned this when he met other dragons, and tried to pass every test they gave him, due to the pressure he felt in not knowing his identity.
          Alice from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland goes on a similar journey. Everyone tells her that she is the wrong Alice but only when she tells Absolem who she is, does she gain the power to face the Jabberwocky. Alice learns who she is by discovering what she can do. She makes decisions to change her fate, and prove everyone wrong that she's the wrong Alice.
         The message of these stories is simple: Only you have the power to decide who you are and what you can do. Spike learned this by meeting other dragons, and Alice learned this by acting on what she wanted to do. Both characters had let other people determine who they were by doing what was expected of them, but they finally discovered what they really wanted to do and who they wanted to be. Going on a journey of self discovery is an important rite of passage in everyone's life. Age, time and situation is irrelevant. Once something threatens you to lose your identity or condemns you to a label, it is only natural to question if this is really who you are and who you want to be.
         As Spike says in the episode, "Who I am is not the same as what I am."
Who you are is your decision while what you are is the person people think you are. The self is a complex thing that can never be defined through one label.