who am i?

no... this is not a post about the jackie chan movie (oh my god... i'm using american terminology...) but instead is a little look at me for a change and the simple question of "who i am" or for that matter who we are.

In our heads we all have an image of who we want to be. We know the things we'd like to do or be able to do. We know the things we'd like to be able to say. We know the things we'd like people to say about us.
I'm not sure if we all do this as I can only speak for myself but I am aware that I behave differently depending on who I am with. I speak differently, I talk about different things, I act differently to the extent that two possible groups of people that know me will not know that they, if they were to talk about me, were talking about the same person. Of course this might not be true as it's just something that I occasionally think about when I say something that I wouldnt normally in other company. Is it pretending? Well, in my case, I'm not sure.... At least I don't think so. After all, I still think of it; the only difference is whether or not I would say it out aloud. Some of this is just my adapting to the people around me; after all, what point is there in bringing up UK/US foreign policies to my aunt but it's not always about things like these. Occasionally, it seems like I lead separate lives that no one person is fully aware of and they would only know if they all got together and compared notes. Carrie has always said that she doesn't really know me. Lou still says that I am hard to get close to. Noo always said I keep things to myself. How much of this is true? Those that know me will see that the three people whose opinion I use to illustrate my point are people who I've had more than a passing crush on. Is this what it's all about? Do I pretend to be something else in front of the people I want to impress? Then again, I know full well that being distant and defensive towards someone you'd like to get close to isn't a good way about it so why do it?
I've always told Carrie that I was more like Gary than she'd know.
She always said she found that had to believe but well.... I'm not so sure. I mean, I do think on one level we are alike.

On a different slant of the title.
Who am I?
Who are we?
Heidigger said (kinda) that we are a reflection of what we project? We acknowledge our existance through our interaction with other people and other things that we know to be real. I know this chair is real. I can sit in the chair. I can interact with the chair and I can feel comfort from sitting in the chair. Therefore I must be real.
The same logic is applied to other people.
He thinks I am a nice person. He is nice to me because he thinks I am a nice person. Therefore, I must be a nice person.
(over simplified I know so please forgive me philosophy students...)
In short, who we are depends on the things that surround us and is also dependent on who we have around us and what image we project onto them. In other words, if we want to be nice, we make other people think we are nice. Of course, if you read into this on a slightly more real world way, you'd see that a part of it is about pretending to be something in order to simulate something. Pretend to be deep and intellectual and people might tink you are, even if you're just another dumbarse sap (but this goes into honesty of character which is an altogether different post).

My question is, what happens when you're on your own?
No one to talk to, no one to intereact with on any level. Does that in turn mean for that time when you are by yourself that you are in effect no-one? Perhaps it does, in which case it explains why people who are by themselves a lot talk to themselves in one manner or another. Heck, in one aspect, this blog is me talking to myself. So am I pretending to myself to be someone?
Who am I?

Answers on a postcard to the usual address.