The First Ten Years

I always knew that there was something different about how I saw America because of the fact that I was able to see it as an outsider. I have always been grateful for the clarity and perspective that I was blessed with simply by spending my formative years outside of this country.

My life in Trinidad taught me so many things. It also gave me so many things that I would need to rely on as I grew up in the States. My psyche was packed up with a storehouse of self esteem, self worth, certainty of my potential that I received not only from great parenting, but from the environment in Trinidad itself. Walking around surrounded by Black and brown bodies running schools, government, healthcare, most industries, there was no doubt in my mind that I was capable of doing and being anything that I wanted to be, even amidst the real financial struggles of the country and the tough competition for limited resources.

Knowing the sweet feeling of not having to constantly fight against a system set up for your failure due to factors about yourself that you could not and would not change, both served to help me identify very quickly when that was not the case here in America, but also has made it hard for me to tolerate indefinitely.

I know that it can be better. I know that it is better. Knowing that there is greener grass somewhere else makes it very hard to tolerate the weeds in your own lawn.