Jhene Aiko Research Paper

There is a quote by my favorite musical artist, Jhene Aiko, which says “What you create for you, no one can take from you. Your energy, love and your soul is all that goes wherever you go. Everything else don’t.” This strongly resonates with me because growing up, I never had a place where I felt I could fit into , I usually had to create one. From being the only hispanic in my entirely West African/German-American family to being the only boy who wanted to be in the drama club more than the sports teams.This obligation to create a place where I belonged, often came with many challenges and still does.

In this world, everything always seems to have to be cookie cutter perfect. You are expected to have good grades, conform to gender roles, to be outgoing and different but not too much that it falls out of line of

I often questioned and acted on my curiousity as to why everything must work within such rigid boundaries .Once I started getting into Social Justice work and spirituality, I found that those limited worldly ways were simply not for me. I faced trauma because since the day I was born, I was never that cookie cutter perfect person I was expected to be . For a while, I hated the difference, but through the demand for growth that my broad challenges like growing up adopted ,losing my birth father, having been bullied, and falling into depression came with. I started to see how my differences truly shaped me and why I needed to challenge society even more than I already did. All the hardships I have faced was the platform for my individuality and I believe the wisdom I have gained through overcoming those challenges is what allowed me to be comfortable in my own skin, something that I feel like conformity to anything other than my true self would strip me