“So, Like, What Are You?”

“So, like what are you?”

I wish I could count how many times I have been asked this question. I have come up with an arsenal of answers including:

“Hungry”

“A nice mix of Tituss Andromedon and Chrissy Teigen, with a dash of Carrie Fischer”

“A nursing student who occasionally cries in public while studying without even noticing”

None of these answers suffice and the follow up question is about my race, with which I answer “I’m mixed. White and black, but a little bit of everything else too”.

The older I get, the more I realize that saying “I’m mixed” actually means so much more than my genetic makeup and family that resembles a United Nations meeting.

I was born and raised in Louisville, KY, a city with serious identity issues. Being in the border state of Kentucky pretty much set Louisville up for failure in regard to formulating a solid identity. Are we the North? Not really. Are we the South? Usually, but there are plenty of naysayers. Is Louisville a big city? Kind of, but I run into someone I know every single time I run errands. The rest of the world can’t even agree on how to pronounce it (it’s Loo-a-vul-, BTW). Although geographic confusion was added to my already present racial confusion, I love the small city/large town of Louisville.

Being in my early 20s also adds to this idea of being “mixed”. I’m at the age where I am clearly an adult, but also feel like I’m looking for the real adult in the room. This age is so weird and it isn’t talked about that much. There’s so much excitement leading up to being 21 and then all of a sudden, you’re just standing there looking around and trying to figure out what to do with your hands and if Chex Mix counts as breakfast. The spectrum that people sit on at this age is uncanny. I have friends who are married with children, friends with 6 figure jobs, friends who go out more nights than they don’t, and everything in between. And then there’s me, a professional student working on my second degree realizing that college isn’t nearly as fun the second time around.

I can’t wait to get started and bring y’all some unfiltered reviews of things that suck and things that don’t. If you have any specific requests for content you would like for me to cover, I would love to hear from you. Head over to my Contact page and slide into my DMs, plz.

Nothing here is black and white. Except for me. And only kind of.