"I am Me, and I hope to become Me more and more. That is surely the goal of all our struggles." — Paula Modersohn-Becker
Quote
From German Expressionist painter Paula Modersohn-Becker:
And now, I don’t even know how I should sign my name. I’m not Modersohn and I’m not Paula Becker anymore either. I am Me, and I hope to become Me more and more. That is surely the goal of all our struggles.
She wrote these words in 1906 while in Paris, having temporarily left her husband to pursue an artistic independence that rejected both her maiden name (Becker) and her married name (Modersohn) as external labels.
We perhaps shouldn't view "self" as a destination we reach. It's more of a process of uncovering that requires the courage to be "unlabeled".
This reminds me of Nietzsche's "the end of a melody is not its goal". Also, "We should stop asking about the meaning of life and think of ourselves as those being questioned".