My mother has said a lot of things to me over the years. I can not possibly remember them all but there is something she said that resonated deeply with me and that I think about every now and again.

She said, “I should have encouraged you to be an artist.”

Let me tell you why, I was on my way to college and I was wearing a black dress that had these big wooden circles in front of it, bangles on and I had a head wrap tied. I really was that girl who wore ethnic clothes that were not considered fashionable and befriended only one person at a time.

I probably would have been a painter or sculptor.

Nothing is stopping me, I can still become these things if I choose to.

I never really enjoyed high school. I lie. I enjoyed high school till I was in form 3 and that was it. I went from learning at a really good all girls school to learning with boys. Worst year of my life. They made my life horrible. I was bullied about my accent (too englishy and I couldn’t speak shona as fluently), my weight (apparently I reminded them of a piglet) and just me (cause I didn’t have many friends).

My mum used to say, “they do that just cause they like you, they don’t know how to say they like you.” If this was supposed to make me feel better it didn’t work. We got an assignment in our English class and we were told to write about anything we wanted. My introduction was…

Sugar and spice and all nice things are what girls are made of

and boys? disgusting Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

extract from a nursery rhyme

And I went all in with all the hate I had. I felt so good after writing it, it’s like a burden was lifted. I had to let the hate out.

And folks I didn’t know it then but that’s when my journey to becoming EthneticMe started.

Well fast forward many years later to my first blog it was hosted on blogspot.com. I remember that day like it was yesterday, I was overwhelmed with sadness and I wrote a letter to myself from my dad. I don’t know how to explain it without sounding weird but when I pressed publish and sent my brother the link, he shared it and sent me all these messages he received in his inbox from people (especially young ladies) who had been touched and they were telling him their stories about being fatherless.

And folks I didn’t know it then but that was when my journey to healing began and I thought hey man if I can heal someone else can too.

Three somewhat unrelated stories that have led to my becoming.

That is how we became Ethnic and Authentic becoming EthneticMe

• becoming
• selfdiscovery
• winterABC
• Winterbloggingchallenge