‘Existence precedes essence’.* That is, we exist in the world before we are defined by it. We are not forced to be anything, we choose it. We are responsible for the choices we make and we must know that we can always choose something different.
*As defined by Jean-Paul Sartre in a speech entitled Existentialism is a Humanism.
[Image is of the Café de Flore in Paris where Jean-Paul Sartre would spend time with Simone de Beauvoir and Albert Camus]