What does "I" Look Like?

In Phillip Lopate's writing on "The Personal Essay and the First-Person Character" he describes how big of an impact using the letter "I" in an essay has. Describing yourself is not an easy thing to do by any means, especially through text. Lopate says "the first step is to acquire some distance from yourself." I think that this is an interesting thought and one people often do not do. Think about if you were anybody else, how would people see you? what would you look like to them? For some people this is a scary thought, but it can be used to improve writing and storytelling especially in works about you. For my final project in College Writing I have to show my class/teacher who I am, why I'm at Manhattan College and who has been the biggest help in getting me here, all in a 15 minute video. It seems near impossible to show strangers who you are and give them the best image of yourself in that short amount of time. I am definitely going to have to use Lopate's strategy and step-back for a second and think about what makes me, me. It may be a difficult story to tell at first but once you are able to gather your thoughts and figure out what makes you different from everybody else it will start falling into place. Whether you are writing a personal essay or creating a short video, whenever you use the letter "I" make sure that they know who that is really talking about.