In the midst of big changes the answer to the question of who I am gets revisited and reevaluated because of all the things life throws at me. Being isolated during a pandemic has certainly left lots of time for this self-reflection.
The easiest way to start is by going back to the basics. I was born and raised in a small town outside of Atlanta, Georgia where I grew up in the same house and went to school with the same people. My family, my education, and traveling opened me up to how big the world was and the many types of people that were out there.
The identity I have now was shaped a lot by my family’s culture which I was engulfed by from the get-go. Both sides of my family are Jamaican and my parents made sure my sister and I were immersed in that culture from birth, and we were also lucky enough to visit and really be familiar with it. Even though my family has moved to the states it was never their intention to completely leave behind their home and they made sure my sister and I had that same connection with it. Doing this made me develop a connection with my American experience and reality while also never being able to remove myself from my Jamaican background. The interesting thing about this connection is that it has made me realize the difference in my understanding of Jamaica, a place I call home and recognize the diversity of struggles and successes, is a place other people only know for its beaches and resorts. People are not aware of how culturally diverse yet distinct it is or the challenges it faces as a developing country in the Caribbean. Realizing what people did not know is part of what motivated me to learn more about other cultures from their perspectives, my education and ability to travel really fostered my ability to do that.
I think that my education was not a traditional one before I started at Santa Clara University and it amplified the importance of independence and exploring my interests. From the age of 4 to 16 I went to a very small Montessori school that prioritized learning in self-motivated, low pressure environment, I didn’t ever receive letter grades until the 7th grade. There were only around 100 kids kindergarten through 12th grade so it was nearly impossible not to know my classmates, the teachers, and administration. These people were like a second family for me and while it was not traditional it taught me a lot. I learned things like addition on an abacus contraption and I learned botany in our garden or by identifying trees in our woods. The most influential part was how much freedom we had to explore our interests. There was a base level of requirements that we had and then we were free to pursue whatever we wanted. I used to complete a research project each quarter that I chose the topic for and my picks ranged from synesthesia to contraceptive methods. When I was not satisfied with our requirements I got to pitch and adapt assignments that could be used replace it and I took full advantage of that. I got our school to join a book club with a theater group we met at a book festival on one of our field trips, for our creative final projects I took on huge baking projects that had many trials and errors, and I found out I loved managing tech for our performances. Being at this school allowed me to develop opinions and interests bigger than our small space and explore what the world had to offer.
What my future holds and what I want out of it is still a big question mark for me. But because of the experiences I’ve had I know a lot more about certain aspects of life I will need to feel fulfilled. I know I need something that is not stagnant, but something that introduces me to different people and problems, and I need something that I can derive meaning from in some way.
The easiest way to start is by going back to the basics. I was born and raised in a small town outside of Atlanta, Georgia where I grew up in the same house and went to school with the same people. My family, my education, and traveling opened me up to how big the world was and the many types of people that were out there.
The identity I have now was shaped a lot by my family’s culture which I was engulfed by from the get-go. Both sides of my family are Jamaican and my parents made sure my sister and I were immersed in that culture from birth, and we were also lucky enough to visit and really be familiar with it. Even though my family has moved to the states it was never their intention to completely leave behind their home and they made sure my sister and I had that same connection with it. Doing this made me develop a connection with my American experience and reality while also never being able to remove myself from my Jamaican background. The interesting thing about this connection is that it has made me realize the difference in my understanding of Jamaica, a place I call home and recognize the diversity of struggles and successes, is a place other people only know for its beaches and resorts. People are not aware of how culturally diverse yet distinct it is or the challenges it faces as a developing country in the Caribbean. Realizing what people did not know is part of what motivated me to learn more about other cultures from their perspectives, my education and ability to travel really fostered my ability to do that.
I think that my education was not a traditional one before I started at Santa Clara University and it amplified the importance of independence and exploring my interests. From the age of 4 to 16 I went to a very small Montessori school that prioritized learning in self-motivated, low pressure environment, I didn’t ever receive letter grades until the 7th grade. There were only around 100 kids kindergarten through 12th grade so it was nearly impossible not to know my classmates, the teachers, and administration. These people were like a second family for me and while it was not traditional it taught me a lot. I learned things like addition on an abacus contraption and I learned botany in our garden or by identifying trees in our woods. The most influential part was how much freedom we had to explore our interests. There was a base level of requirements that we had and then we were free to pursue whatever we wanted. I used to complete a research project each quarter that I chose the topic for and my picks ranged from synesthesia to contraceptive methods. When I was not satisfied with our requirements I got to pitch and adapt assignments that could be used replace it and I took full advantage of that. I got our school to join a book club with a theater group we met at a book festival on one of our field trips, for our creative final projects I took on huge baking projects that had many trials and errors, and I found out I loved managing tech for our performances. Being at this school allowed me to develop opinions and interests bigger than our small space and explore what the world had to offer.
What my future holds and what I want out of it is still a big question mark for me. But because of the experiences I’ve had I know a lot more about certain aspects of life I will need to feel fulfilled. I know I need something that is not stagnant, but something that introduces me to different people and problems, and I need something that I can derive meaning from in some way.