Personal Narrative: I Am African-American

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The term “African-American” is one that I hold with great pride. When I look in the mirror, I am proud of my skin and I am proud of my ethnicity. My family is originally from Imo State, Nigeria, and as most foreign families, my parents came to America in search of a better life and higher education for their children. Being born in Boston Massachusetts, at times I could never truly understand the position my parents had on certain topics due to the differences in the culture that we were both raised in. During my first two high school years at Belmont Hill School, my parents would scarcely allow me go to Saturday games and practices for football, basketball, track, or any Saturday event that I needed to go to at my school. I am part of the …show more content…

When my parents and I decided that I would enter into Belmont Hill from my middle school Derby Academy, I believed that my parents would fully buy into the culture at Belmont Hill and I thought they had a full understanding of the requirements of the school. Their decisions always left me struggling for answers when my friends, teachers, and coaches asked why I wasn’t where I needed to be for the sake of the team or the event. Coaches would minimize my playing time and threaten to kick me off teams due to my absence during weekend team events. Occasionally, my teammates and classmates would even joke about me missing all my required events, but I could only laugh along with a tinge of sorrow and anger hidden behind those laughs. At many different points of my time at Belmont Hill, the wishes of my parents, and the requirements the school set in place came into direct conflict; as a result, I was left in the middle and was forced to bear the weight of both societies on my shoulders. I never understood many of the decisions that my parents made for me until my 2017 December

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