Fantastic piece! A wise man once said, “How we are perceived is not truly how we are.”

Your question—Is there a true self—made me think. I don’t know that there is a true self. It’s all (as you put it) about perception. About the labels you paste on the boxes.

Boxes might be inevitable for our order-craving brains. But we can counter our biases by giving people the benefit of the doubt.