ABOUT ME

"So here you are, too foreign for home, too foreign for here. Never enough for both." 
-Ijeoma Umebinyuo

I went to a small private school of roughly 300 students nestled at the foot of Jamaica’s Blue Mountains. There were 15 students in my high school graduating class, including myself, so I became very accustomed to a strong sense of community and an intimate school experience. Jamaica quickly became my “home”; a place built upon the idea of familiarity, routine, communication, and identity. However, when I attended VCU in fall of 2015 for my undergraduate degree, the psychological, emotional, and cultural aspects of reentry crept in--a phenomenon known as “reverse culture shock”. Being born in Fairfax, Virginia made me a U.S.citizen, yet as the daughter of a U.S. Diplomat returning to my place of origin, I felt anything but American. I took comfort in a quote written by Ijeoma Umebinyuo, “So, here you are, too foreign for home, too foreign for here. Never enough for both.” This quote embodied the identity crisis I was undergoing and my experience in VCU Globe helped me to articulate and make sense of what I was feeling particularly in the GLED 201 “Identity” assignment.