Assignment 22: Anne Nombe

I've seen a lot of things. I've been a lot of places. I've felt a lot of emotions.

My circumstances that developed my character would probably be less unusual if it were stereotypical for a person of my background. To give you a key example of this, I have about twenty aunts and uncles and around fifty cousins. And I haven't met ninety percent of them, I'm telling you. That's because I live in America, and the majority of them in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

But that's not so unusual for a child of immigrants. I know of a lot of people who have the exact same story. The unusual thing is despite all the cultural influences around me, for a large part of my life, I rejected them. For me, growing up in America, I wanted nothing more than for people to think that that was where my heritage lied. I didn't like how Americans couldn't pronounce my last name and my relatives talked to me in loud Swahili over the phone. Why couldn't they be normal and speak English, I thought?

Then my grandpa died. I only met him once, when I was no more than two years old. I didn't remember him at all.

My relatives, instead of shouting with glee in Swahili, were now sobbing in Swahili. And I couldn't understand half of the things they were saying.

That was when I realized that my neglect for my culture and my rejection of my own heritage has caused me to be so much more disconnected from my twenty aunts and my fifty cousins that I had thought possible. That was why I started trying harder. I tried to understand, to empathize. That day, I learned the importance of diversity.

It's only a shame that it was too late for me to thank my babu (grandpa) in person.