American | African-American

I was born in the United States. My dad was born in Florida and is of African-American heritage, my mom was born in Kentucky. I recently did my ancestry DNA, growing up I didn't know where or what our origins were. It didn’t really affect me, at least I thought it didn't affect me. When I moved here is when I began to question my heritage. So, I did my ancestry DNA and I found my blood line. My dad's side traces back to Ghana, Ivory Coast & Nigeria. On my mother's side, it's primarily Scandinavian and British. I will say that when I told my parents what had come back from ancestry DNA, they were shocked because my mom didn't know Scandinavian was even part of her makeup. My parents didn't even know really where they were from. I was 10 years old when I realised my mixed ethnicity. I remember being in public and my dad saying ‘don't make a scene, people are already staring at us’. That was something that really resonated with me. I know he was trying to protect us, but there were ramifications of saying something like that to a small child. That line has been something that I have kind of grappled with over the years. My husband and I, we have some similarities. In terms of foundations of life, things that we wanted out of life. But we have many more differences and I can't tell if I am a glutton for punishment. He's French so our household is a big kind of mishmash. I feel like it doesn't make us special, but it makes us unique. If I was to be born again I would like to be born with the knowledge that I have now. It's those trials and tribulations that you go through make you who you are. I'm good with who I am. And so, if I were to be born again, I would own that and stick with me. I think mixed-race is going to take over the world. You've got so many mixed people in the world using platforms like yours which are elevating their voices. There are all these beautiful people out there with these beautiful stories. It's just openness, the more open we are as a culture, the more we thrive. I think our stories are going to be heard more.

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