This isn't a subject I can have an informed opinion on, really, but you asked for gut reactions. And my gut sez "true."
Why? Because you define it as an identity. "Identity" is the thing us social animals strive perhaps most for, only slightly below food and air, if we're in interaction with even only one other social animal. In every other aspect of our identity, we do go through a lot of trial and error---even in profession. Some identities appear late in life---ex., my classifying myself as a dancer. Some disappear---ex., me being an introverted person. I've seen some fall by the wayside when the person feels that s/he doesn't need it anymore---people finding religion in their teenage years and losing it in college, for instance. Some do find that things they've taken on are their true calling. And many things can serve as evolutionary steps in identity development if it turns out that they are not the final stop, because while being in a certain identity we learn things about that identity, where it places us socially in terms of interactions, and most important, how we ourselves react to being identified such. Those all shape the next step, or whether there will be a next step or not.
Naturally, these all change from person to person.
So, um, yes. It can be both ways, is how my uninformed self feels.
Um, yes.
Why? Because you define it as an identity. "Identity" is the thing us social animals strive perhaps most for, only slightly below food and air, if we're in interaction with even only one other social animal. In every other aspect of our identity, we do go through a lot of trial and error---even in profession. Some identities appear late in life---ex., my classifying myself as a dancer. Some disappear---ex., me being an introverted person. I've seen some fall by the wayside when the person feels that s/he doesn't need it anymore---people finding religion in their teenage years and losing it in college, for instance. Some do find that things they've taken on are their true calling. And many things can serve as evolutionary steps in identity development if it turns out that they are not the final stop, because while being in a certain identity we learn things about that identity, where it places us socially in terms of interactions, and most important, how we ourselves react to being identified such. Those all shape the next step, or whether there will be a next step or not.
Naturally, these all change from person to person.
So, um, yes. It can be both ways, is how my uninformed self feels.