Ahhhhh

I finished my exams early and have come home to my dear D.mond for a couple of weeks. I felt something just leaving my body as soon as I came back. I look around and see other faces like me...random people do not feel the right to come up to me and ask ridiculous questions, I just get to be me for a while and it feels so freeing. Of course there's racism and prejudice in D.mond too (plenty of it)!! But there isn't as much public space where it gets tolerated. Here, besides being where I grew up, people judge me as another person; I'm not exotic, I'm not foreign, I'm not an outsider. We draw so many invisible lines in order to belong to something and exclude those that are not like "us". In my head, I get that; but being able to belong again and not having strangers tell me who I am...it's just so comforting. I have this to come back to, I know most minorities and marginalized people don't have that, and having left for a while, I can appreciate the support system I have here so much more. I've said this over and over but I truly appreciate ALL the things I've encountered in K-town, both the positive and negative experiences will get me closer to becoming the kind of person I want to be. I have changed so much since I left D.mond last summer; the way I think about thinking has changed. Wow, I guess this is what it's like to grow up.