How Do We Define Who We Are?

In the immense world we live in, our lives are personal, shaped by our surroundings, and involved wholly in what we participate and believe in. So how do we say who we are? Is it a matter of identification? Some may say so, like the baseball player, or the artist, the writer. Sometimes people believe that who we are is judged by the decisions we make, the choices that create in us a person so different than the next. The defining moment could be the thoughts we voice aloud, or even on the outside- how we dress and act. Life could even be about learning from our mistakes, creating a life for ourselves that we find comfortable in, and discovering who we are. So what is the meaning of life? Is it something that we can figure out now? Or will the question be answered as we progress through life, or a meaning that we only truly discover when we realize that this life is almost over? Some of the answers we search for can be found in literature, among the lines of words written by people we respect.