Tangled Green Thoughts

Existentialist [journal] I suppose I'm slow or something but I finally just read about existentialism. Although I do disagree with some of it, I like how it puts a lot of responsibility on the individual. Too many people these days blame everything that happens to them on someone or something else: bad luck, mom, dad, upbringing, how uncle bob looked at you funny. Sure a lot of shit can be thrown your way, but ultimately you--and you alone--make the choices, and you--and you alone--define who you are. That is, I should never pity myself because I am really then just saying how pathetic I am instead of how pathetic my situation is. I will also never let my role define me. When I become a teacher, I will choose freedom not stereotype.

Anyways, the only thing I disagree with dem existentialist is how we come to subjectivity. I wrote an email to my edu. phil. teacher so I'll paste it here:

To my understanding and for brevity, Existentialists believe that one can
never transcend subjectivity because existence precedes essence; man is
created before he creates his nature. Non-Existentialists believe the
reverse; essence or the concept of man precedes existence and because of
this objectivity can occur (since man should be a certain way). Now I want
to ask if there is a compromise between the two philosophies. Is it possible
for essence to precede existence and still have subjectivity exist? It seems
to me that Existentialists are assuming that man shares a common essence,
and that's why objectivity occurs. What if---yes---we do have an essence
before we exist, but what if each essence is unique? That is, my essence is
different from yours, is different from another. I have a Joe-nature, you
have a Dr. Dunn-nature, and Bob has a Bob-nature. So subjectivity doesn't
come from the fact that we exist and then all create different essences, and
thus everything is subjective. No, essence came first, and subjectivity, in
fact, is because of our different essences.

Is there a philosophy that believes in essence before existence, but
believes in subjectivity?

To answer my own question I could only think of Plato and his idea of
specialization but he simplifies it to only three types of people and that
inherently creates some universals (the men in each group share something).
I am talking about how everyone is born with a predetermined essence, but
each essence is utterly unique. Is there such a compromising philosophy?

I read about Satre (atheist division of existentialism) specifically so I'm not too well versed. Here's a SITE if you are interested in reading more about existentialism. I'll probably look into it a bit more also.