Identity

Three specific factors that have affected my identity include my neighbor, the death of a close family friend and my trip to Haiti. My neighbor Baige was a close family friend of ours who helped raise me from the time I was six months old. Growing up, I would make daily trips three doors down from our house to visit her. She was imaginative and creative and she'd always have something up her sleeve when I visited her. Most importantly she was a fighter. She fought and won against breast cancer twice and even while she went through chemotherapy, she was always there for me with a smile and an embrace. It wasn’t until years later that she was diagnosed with stage four bone cancer. She fought for her last remaining months never lacking her lively, childlike spirit. It was she who taught me that everything in life is worth fight for.

Second of all, It was my other neighbor, Maryann, who taught me a valuable lesson and affected my identity, but not by her actions. She was a very emotionally distraught woman and three years ago she took her own life at the beginning of my freshmen year. Her actions were an example of what not to do when one is in trouble and needs help. Her absence has taught me that if I am in trouble, I must reach out and ask others who love me for help, even with the simplest things! I've learned to communicate with those around me and better articulate for myself.

My trip to Haiti this summer to the organization called to Haitian American Caucus absolutely affected my identity. I met these two little girls who were in fact sisters who went to summer camp at HAC. Their names were Madia, 7, and Shania, 12. For the week I was there, they taught me how to speak Creole. There was an incredible language barrier seeing as though neither of them spoke English. In that week, we spent alot of time together whether it was at the local store at night, or walking around the village with them, and even when fifty or so people went to the beach one day. I was sitting with each of them on the bus playing games and laughing, when Madia turns to me and says "Mwen renmen ou pase tet mwen." I asked one of my English students what she was saying to me. The translation was, "I love you, more than myself." I almost cried on the spot. The love these girls showed me in that week could last me a lifetime. This experience taught me that love is unconditional and without borders and that everyone is loved by many people around them. http://hac-haiti.org/node/1