EXISTENTIALISM - Who are you?

You are in charge of your own life. You are responsible for giving your own life meaning. If you don't YOU are ruled over by other people. This is existentialism. Well not just that, but that is one of the general views. You're in charge of giving your own life meaning and being passionate about it despite certain obstacles that may drag you down, like grief, boredom, despair etc.
One of the main themes in existentialism was "existence before essence" which meant that a persons actions and what they did or their 'actual life' defined who they were instead of some predetermined 'wish to be' that lead them to behave in a way that was human.
Essence is therefore not what makes you human but your own decisions and actions. The way you are creates your meaning in life, your desire to be something does not. Existentialism relates alot to news. "News is about people doing things", rather than what people are thinking or feeling to do. Existentialism, is about people 'doing things' to give them a purpose, not about their desire to be something. Thus through your own choices and actions you give purpose and value to your life. Nothing else can affect this, nothing outside the person himself can dictate his own essence, so existence defines essence.
But once people have defined themselves, Sartre (a philosopher who followed existentialism) said that as humans we must then be responsible for the essence or profile that we create for ourselves only then can man be trully free.