Maria

“I’ve spent so much of my life feeling like I had to overcompensate. To make up for the way others saw me. To be the best kind of Middle Eastern American—white passing and well behaved”
― Iman Hariri-Kia, Female Fantasy: A Novel

“What propelled me from place to place was a fundamental truth about dogs: people love them. That fundamental truth is actually a number of other truths rolled into one. People love them because they need them, and they need them because dogs are intimately connected to people's ideas about themselves. They make people better and stronger, at once more serious and sillier, in touch with their better natures.”
― Elias Weiss Friedman, This Dog Will Change Your Life

“As I dance with my crew, I dance for my blessings. I dance with intention. I dance with hope and purpose in mind. The next time my first day looks like it’s destined for doom, I will remind myself that I am not cursed; I am experiencing all the flavors and colors of this life. And if I focus on the gloomy side of things, I’ll never notice the brighter moments. Even if I encounter a place where evil resides, I will know that good lies under that same roof.”
― Debbie Rigaud, A Girl's Guide to Love & Magic

“As I morphed from from a fat, cute kid to a young man, the world began to see me differently. At Mount Saint Michael's, the Catholic private school to which I had transferred, I was surrounded and befriended by much tougher kids, mostly black like me, many of whom had grown up fending for themselves. Many of the teachers, however, were middle-aged or older white women, and they approached us 10 year olds like we were dangerous. They wielded their power like prison wardens and in their fear, I saw reflected back an image of myself I hadn't seen before. At the same time, I saw the power my friends possessed. How they could manipulate using fear. As our teachers reprimanded us, and when that didn't work suspended us, I saw how the kids around me dealt with this anger and frustration. They turned their faces to stone and dead in their eyes like those of statues. They became hard and menacing, and as I saw it then, that hardness meant strength.”
― Kwame Onwuachi, Notes from a Young Black Chef