Cultural Collage
A Summary of My Life...Culturally
Who Am I??
I am an individual who has shaped her interactions and perceptions of others based on the negative ones I encountered as a child. I identify myself as a Methodist, Black Woman, intellectual (AIG), Southern American. I have a strong sense and desire of belonging so constantly search for ways to align or empathize with all subgroups. This trait makes me flexible and responsive to the needs of students and community in the educational world.
The Token
At five, I learned what it meant to be the only one who looked like "me". I wasn't brown, like the crayon box suggested, I was "BLACK".
Blended Family
Blended in race, ethnicity, class, and tradition.
God First
Service is a major part of who I am as my Faith teaches me.
Self-Perception
I am the girl, Ajalyn Deonn Dunn -2003
I was the girl that everyone wanted to be,
But to myself I wasn't because what they saw I did not see,
I was the girl who resented looking in the mirror,
Who wanted to be the girl she saw in the picture,
I was the girl who wondered who he was and what it could be,
I was the girl who was at the top of her class,
I was the girl you didn't know when you passed,
I was the girl everybody knows,
I was the girl that encountered more cons than pros,
I was the girlwho only noticed her mistakes,
I was the girl that everyone loved to hate,
I was the girl every turned to,
I was the girl who sometimes had no one to run to,
And most imporatantly I was you!
But to myself I wasn't because what they saw I did not see,
I was the girl who resented looking in the mirror,
Who wanted to be the girl she saw in the picture,
I was the girl who wondered who he was and what it could be,
I was the girl who was at the top of her class,
I was the girl you didn't know when you passed,
I was the girl everybody knows,
I was the girl that encountered more cons than pros,
I was the girlwho only noticed her mistakes,
I was the girl that everyone loved to hate,
I was the girl every turned to,
I was the girl who sometimes had no one to run to,
And most imporatantly I was you!
http://www.poetry.com/historical_users/6777719-Ajalyn%20Deonn%20Dunn/11779880-I-am-the-girl
What I think people want to see.
I am a product of who I am. I constantly worry about how others perceive me and work hard to meet the needs and positive expectations. Killing stereotypes and not embracing differences which exist in me (class, ethnicity, gender, education).