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            In life, we find ourselves lost in the wonders of those around us. Every encounter is an opportunity to learn and grow. Whether an impression be made that cause you to want to mimic or completely oppose ones ideals, it is a beautiful occurrence to truly meet another individual that makes an impression on you and, occasionally, on your life. One of the most impactful contact zones I have ever walked into was conversations I had with my junior and senior year Spanish teacher. This remarkable woman taught and teaches me but not simply as a teacher. Like all those people most valuable in one’s life, she taught me about being a proper human being. She taught me about compassion and care and looking past incidental moments of faults.

Simiar to the last post, I've also had an unlikely encounter with a famous perosn. While visiting New York City, my friends and I all went to see Newsies on Broadway. During intermission we all went into the lobby to buy refreshments and shirts with the Newsies logo on it. After spending a fortune on useless souvenirs, we began to ascend the staircase back to our seats. As I began walking, I saw this mysterious, red haired man looking right at me. He looked extremely farmilar, but I couldn't remember how I knew him. Then as our eyes were locked, I remembered that he was on one of my favorite television shows. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he knew that I figured out who he was. He looked terrified that I would somehow make a scene.

What’s your identity? This question always lingers in my head. During each time period, you are placed into different positions by different people. Not until you go to work and become self-sufficient,those people who are called adults, and the surroundings will keep imposing you their understandings of life. So where suits you the best? Is that the one others choose for you, or the one you crave for but other is against?

I agree with Alisha’s post. Although I am not asked very often, “What are you?” people just assume I’m black without even bothering to figure out “what I am.” Granted I am black, but struggling to defeat the misperceptions that many teenagers have, that I have encountered, is something that I have faced very often.

The Martian and the American

The sun was barely beginning to frolic past the hill. Rays of light kissed our face as we embraced the goodbye and welcome of this strange intersection from our naïve selves into adulthood. It was a moment that neither of us were prepared to face, but the day had arrived and the only option that stood before us was to look forward. A natural light bathed our skin as we shouted into the air, hands free from the shackles of statistics. We had overcome what our parents could not. Yet despite this beautiful friendship reflected in the photo, our lives originated on what seemed to be two very distant planets.

My friend has frequently told me that I’m “such a white girl.”  It seems that this bit of commentary always interrupts some paroxysm of laughter or is post some purchasing escapade, as though that is solely what a white girl does: laugh, buy things at Starbucks, and shop at Victoria’s Secret (activities that I, and quite a few other humans, happen to take part in). 

            What seems strange to me, is not that I should be called a “white girl” because, I am in fact a girl who happens to be white, but the use of the phrase “such a” or the word “typical” out of the mouth of someone I have known now for over eight years. 

What I’m about to say next may appall you: I can relate to the white woman in the essay by June Jordan. Yeah, the one who calls Jordan “lucky” for being black and having something to work to, unlike herself, not believing that she was “a person”. I admit, now that I’ve seen and had firsthand experience of friends who have been in tough situations that I don’t share the same exact viewpoint as the woman but  I was kind of scared to admit it during class in fear of being judged by people I barley know and will be spending another 4 years with.

In the summer of 2012, I was given the great opportunity to go abroad. It was during this time that I discovered my role as a global citizen and the value in the small attitudes of an individual. Through the program "Amigos de las Americas," I went to the beautiful lands of Paraguay. With hills so steep, forest areas so vast, and lands so rocky, it did not seem that one would find themselves there but that they would lose themselves. And maybe I did, maybe I lost a part of me. Maybe I lost a darker side of myself that I had not realized existed before so that the light I found in others could shine in me.

           I began as apart of someone else, an idea. My identities were handed to me in a selection. I only had a deceptively large range of choices. Where I am from was decided. Privilege was assumed, not questioned. With that came my color, my access to education, what I could buy, not worrying about money. These were labels that I quickly enveloped myself in, not wandering if I had taken them on. They were simply presented to me.