One major difference my friends and I found between our faiths lay in our beliefs about our identities: While they held that we are simply God’s creations, I felt a match strike in my chest with the knowledge that I am more than that. And while it’s an idea any five-year-old could tell you without hesitation or confusion, in my moment on the porch of a small homestay on Gili Trawangan, as I heard myself say it, I learned it again: I am a daughter of God.
That fundamental understanding of my identity informs so much else in my interaction with myself and with my future and with the heavens beyond.