So… I’m Asian/African, a woman, a Christian, an immigrant, a millennial.
What’s interesting is that upon learning about those labels you now know a little bit about me.
What’s interesting is that upon learning about those labels you are probably now starting to form an opinion about who I am.
What’s interesting is that upon learning about those labels you’re probably deciding if you want to know me better. If I could be (if I am) a friend, an ally, an enemy, a nothing.
What’s interesting is that upon learning about those labels you probably feel like you know what I believe in; what my thoughts are on a certain issue, a certain politician, a certain news. If I will laugh or frown at that joke, if I will like or not like that post.
What’s interesting is that upon learning about those labels you probably feel like you know my potential, how far I will go in life, what I might do for work, who my spouse might likely be, what I eat, what I drink, how I smell, how I behave.
What’s interesting is that upon learning about those labels you’ve probably put me in a box. Or most probably a square — a 2 dimensional shape. I have height, width but no thickness.
What’s interesting is that upon learning about those labels you probably like me a little bit more, or like me a little bit less.
What’s interesting is that upon learning about those labels you’ve probably closed a door or opened a window.
What’s interesting is that you might be completely right or totally wrong. On everything. On nothing.
What’s interesting is that IT IS OKAY. You are okay. I am okay.
What’s interesting is that what REALLY matters is the answer to this question: Where do we go from here?
For me, I guess, I can choose to step outside of the box I am in. And I can refuse to step inside the square you might have put me in. Because I am more than that. Because you are more than that.
Because if I stay in the box, then you stay there with me. And if I step out of it, then I’ve invited you to move beyond it too.
The labels (and all the sticky stuff that comes with it) will always be there. For richer or for poorer. For better or for worse. It’s part of me. It’s part of you. And it is okay.
Maybe we have to fully embrace it so we can look past it. Maybe we have to fully embrace it so we can live beyond it.
Because there is one glaring truth.
The whole is greater than the sum of all its parts.
(I swear it’s true.)
You, where do you go from here?
