Adjusting Focus

I planned to upload a very different blog post today, but at the last minute, decided I had to write about the recent events on police brutality. As one of my goals for this blog is to create a supportive, welcoming community for all, I want to express to you the heaviness many of you are feeling- but from my perspective as a person of color*. My news feed has been filled with white people posting about police brutality and being "white allies," and while I appreciate the support, I was reminded of a poem I wrote a few months ago on the frustration I often carry in situations like this. i don't need a white person trying to fight for me i don't need your white savior complex to rescue me or your guilt from the way you've treated my people to finally move you to take action   where were you when i sat on the bus and a girl told her friends to not sit next to me because i am brown? where were you when i was followed in a store because a worker thought i looked suspi...

The theme of my blog this year, my motto, is "Bloom." This year is to help me figure out what the heck my life means post-mission. As the middle of the year is here, I'm coming to understand a lot more about myself, about what I believe, and what I want to do with all of that. For my group therapy practice class, we were asked to do something that makes us uncomfortable. The origin for this post mostly came out of anger and frustration, but after really thinking about it, I thought about the importance of this. And sometimes sharing these thoughts on this issue or sharing what I really honestly believe is an uncomfortable thought for me. I don't like making other people uncomfortable. I hate confrontation. But like I said, when I took a step back, I realized that I couldn't sit back anymore. Similar to a  post  I wrote over 3 years ago, I want to share my thoughts about race and respecting differences in others. I urge you to continue reading with an open mind and...

As I write this I want you all to know that similar to my adoption post , this post is from my perspective as not only someone who is adopted, but also someone of color. What I am about to write is from what I've experienced, and I do not speak for every adopted child, or person of color. Also like my adoption post, I would like to apologize for how wordy and perhaps not too coherent this post will be. Of course, I check to go back and edit for spelling and technical things like that, but sometimes my train of thought makes more sense to me than it does to others (sometimes... more like often). Anyway, here it goes. I've been looking for something to write, as usual, and yesterday I found my topic(s): being in between two cultures and being brown. Yesterday I went to a counseling session and one of the things I brought up was my trip to Guatemala this summer. I've had some concerns about the emotional toll that will probably take on me for the first few days I'm back ...

Before I continue on with this blog post, I just want to apologize in advance for how wordy it will most likely be and how it may sound a little disorganized. Also, the post I'm about to write is strictly from my point of view and how I feel about this topic. Obviously everyone's situations and feelings about it are different. So here it goes. After a conversation yesterday and while I was lying in bed, I started to write this blog post in my head. I guess I've never really talked about being adopted to anyone else besides my family, because there are few people who really understand what it's like. It's hard to explain the feelings and half the time I can't even put it into words and it's literally been like that my entire life. But now, I think I'm at a place in my life where I want more people to understand what it's like (and like I said before, from my point of view) to really be different from everyone around you. I was scrolling through my ...