Behind our persona, the disguise that we put on in the presence of others to hide our true identity, lies our ego and shadow. The ego, the characteristics that deal with reality, is easy for us to display because it’s what we use to fit well into society. We consciously acknowledge the presence of our ego**,** and we know how to modify it so that we can get accustomed to our culture. The shadow, however, lies deep within our psyche, or soul, and we almost completely ignore the fact that **it is** (contractions are poor form) there. Despite us failing to see it, we all have a shadow and it is just as important as our ego.

            We develop this shadow early in our lives. During this process, the civilizing process, we categorize our characteristics into two groups. In Owning Your Own Shadow, author Robert Johnson states that “we sort out our God-given characteristics into those that are acceptable to our society and those that have to be put away” (4). **Meaning,** we put away the characteristics that we expect will be thought of as unacceptable by other people based on **whichever** culture we live in. **Owning Our Own Shadow** is very beneficial to the development of the human race. **If we don't discard our dangerous characteristics, our civilization wouldn’t function as well as it does today.** (unclear. r/r) These characteristics **cannot** leave our psyche completely**;** they combine to form our shadow ~~They just~~ **and** pile up somewhere in our personality**.** ~~and~~ We don’t pay attention to them because we actively try to overlook the fact that we do own them. Sometimes, the shadow could break out and cause ~~some~~ terrible issues **such as road rage.** ~~An example of this is road rage.~~ If a person **is** driving home after a rough day at work and experiences an inconvenience involving another driver, they could **succumb to a sudden fit of anger** ~~go into a sudden fit of rage~~ because their shadow overpowers them. Though the ~~rage~~ tantrum **was not** exclusively caused by the other driver, **"**it was easier for them to unleash their shadow in **their** car, on the road, at a stranger, with very few consequences.**"** (something is wrong with this sentence r/r)

            Acculturation is the process ~~of~~ a person **under goes when** trying to figure out which of their characteristics belong in the ego and which belong in the shadow **. This process is** dependent on what **their** culture ~~they are surrounded by~~ **classifies**as either normal or inappropriate. Johnson says culture “takes away the simple human in us” (5). **Left to it's own devices,** the **"** simple human **"** in us ~~would do anything it wants. It~~ would act barbaric and uncivilized. With acculturation, we become a much more complicated being. We are forced to make decisions **, such as,** whether a characteristic should be shared with the public or kept to ourselves. **"** Depending on the culture, gold, (?) or good characteristics, can be interpreted as bad characteristics and are put into the shadow. **"** (r/r) Johnson says this gold is “related to our higher calling, and this can be hard to accept at certain stages of life. Ignoring the gold can be as damaging as ignoring the dark side of the psyche” (8). (GOLD should be explained when it is first mentioned.) We may be scared to accept our gold, but it is just as important ~~to accept it~~ as it is to put away our shadow. **Although,** it may take a big event **, such as depression or illness,** or a change in our life for us to accept the gold, ~~like depression or illness.~~ By the time we’re adults w**most of us** will have accepted our gold and have a pretty good idea of how we define our ego and shadow. According to Johnson, “the first half of life is devoted to the cultural process…the second half of life is devoted to restoring the wholeness (making holy) of life” (10). What he means is once we finish our cultural process, the dividing of the ego and shadow, we will be ready to make our lives holy. 

            Our personalities could be thought of as a seesaw. According to Johnson, “Our acculturation consists of sorting out our God-given characteristics and putting the acceptable ones on the right side of the seesaw and the ones that do not conform on the left…terrible law prevails that few people understand and that our culture chooses to ignore completely. That is, the seesaw must be balanced if one is to remain in equilibrium” (10). **In other words,** our ego and shadow are on opposite ends of a seesaw and people tend to ignore the **idea** that the seesaw must be balanced. If we have too many characteristics on one side, then the seesaw flips. **Consequently,** we might behave differently. A good example of people behaving differently because of this flip are celebrities who act delightful and charming on camera, then go on to take part in drug and alcohol abuse when they are ~~alone and~~ away from the public eye. The fulcrum, or center point, of the seesaw could also be broken if it is carrying too many characteristics. Our psyche does a good job of balancing the seesaw, but with the right amount of energy (no comma) the fulcrum **has** a good chance of snapping that **could** result in **serious psychological**complications. ~~like psychological meltdowns or psychosis.~~ Accepting our shadow is how we balance our seesaws. ~~Having a balanced seesaw~~ **This balancing act** is how we reach the holy place(.) ~~and~~ If we fail to balance our seesaw, we will “fail one’s sainthood and miss the purpose of life” (17) according to Johnson. Accepting our shadow helps us in understanding our own humanity and coming to terms with our own psyche.

Because we are continuously worrying about having to show others the right side of our seesaw, reaching our holy place is challenging. However, it is essential for us to be able to enter the personal effectiveness mindset. (The personal effective mindset was not included in the intro or body. You should include it in those places or remove it from the conclusion.) True holiness is, according to Johnson, “for each of us to pick up our own dark side, combine it with our hard-earned light, and make something better of it all than the opposition of the two” (31). We must continue to exclusively show the world our ego and good characteristics, but we must also accept the existence of our shadow to reach our holy place.

editors note: Some ideas were not thoroughly explained. An effective paper should explain everything to a person with zero knowledge on your subject matter. Take you like out of this edit. Disregard what you don't like. Avoid contractions and your papers will look much more polished. Good luck.