find oneself

present singular third person finds oneself · participle present finding oneself · participle past found oneself · past found oneself

1. idiomaticTo learn, or attempt to learn, the essence or nature of one's character and the aims or desires one pursues in life.

   When he was in his early twenties, he backpacked around Europe to find himself.

   2 more examples

   I don't know what was said, my baby / I thought that everything was fine / You say you got to get away, to find yourself

   1981, Atlantic Starr, “Send For Me”, in Radiant

   All that mattered now was figuring out what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. It was time to find herself again. The shelby she'd been without Drew. Strong and confident.

   2017 June, Lexi Blake, Revenge, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Books, →ISBN, page 292

2. idiomaticTo unexpectedly or unintentionally begin to do or experience something.

   As you enter the cafe, you find yourself wondering why they decided to paint the entire room blue.

   5 more examples

   When news of his wife’s murder spread around the media, he found himself in front of a press conference explaining his actions.

   he found himself enveloped in a frothy abundance of frills and fal-lals, lace at the wrists, lace round the neck, with flutters of ribbon here and there.

   1914, Ernest Scott, The Life of Captain Matthew

   Anne and Henrietta, finding themselves the earliest of the party the next morning, agreed to stroll down to the sea before breakfast.

   1817 (date written), [Jane Austen], chapter XII, in Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume III, London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC, page 241

   There is a scene in the popular movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" when the character Cameron finds himself at the Art Institute of Chicago transfixed by "A Sunday Afternoon on The Island of La Grande Jatte" by Georges Seurat.

   2015, Nathan W. Harter, “Cameron Finds Himself Transfixed by “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte””, in Leadership and Coherence: A Cognitive Approach (Leadership: Research & Practice), New York, N.Y.; Hove, East Sussex: Routledge, →ISBN, page 71

   [Danny] Boyle revives some of the stylistic tics which found themselves being ripped off by geezer-gangster Britflicks back in the day, but now the freezeframes are briefer, sharper; the movie itself refers back to the original with variant flashback versions of famous scenes, but also Super 8-type images of the boys' poignant boyhood in primary school.

   2017 January 19, Peter Bradshaw, “T2 Trainspotting review – choose a sequel that doesn’t disappoint”, in The Guardian, London, archived from the original on 20 Jan 2017

3. idiomaticTo be in a particular state of mind.

   How do you find yourself this morning?

4. literallyTo find (something) for oneself.

   I need to find myself a boat.

   1 more example

   On entering the ſervice he finds himſelf a horſe, and when that dies he is mounted by government; when his horſe dies proper officers make out a certificate thereof, which is called a ſaketnameh, in order that his pay may be regulated accordingly, for until he has found another horſe, he ceaſes to draw any pay for one; and if he neglects to obtain the certificate, he is not allowed any thing from the time of the laſt muſter.

   1800, Abu’l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, “The Ahdy”, in Francis Gladwin, transl., Ayeen Akbery; or The Institutes of the Emperor Akber. Translated from the Original Persian … In Two Volumes, volume I, London: Printed by G. Auld, Greville-Street, for J. Sewell [et al.], →OCLC, part II (Containing Regulations for the Military Department), page 205

5. literallyTo discover oneself to be in a particular place.

   I got drunk and woke to find myself in the neighbour’s garden the next morning.

   1 more example

   If you found yourselves some day at the base of Mont Blanc, where that giant of mountains strikes his immovable foundations into the earth, and if you saw some little ants issuing from their hillock, labouring, scraping, picking, running, taking, one a blade of grass, another a grain of sand, would you believe that Mont Blanc was about to be annihilated?

   1851, J[ean]-H[enri] Merle D’Aubigné, “Discourse I. The Testimony of God.”, in W. K. Tweedie, transl., Rationalism and Popery Refuted: Three Courses on the Authority of the Scriptures. … Translated from the French, with a Preface, London; Edinburgh: Johnstone & Hunter, →OCLC, page 8