The SELF Series

Today, everyday, forever, Black Lives Matter ✊🏼 • I wanna talk about my personal journey to identifying & eradicating racist thoughts in my own mind.
When I first heard about the BLM Movement about 2 years ago, I too was an “All Lives Matter” person because I didn’t understand it. I wasn’t educated enough on Black history (because we’re not taught it in school) to grasp the concept and truly understand.
When I was younger, in middle school, I admit that there were times that I was embarrassed to be the only white girl hanging out with the black girls. I felt unaccepted by people that looked like me and was forced to hang out with people I’d been conditioned to think I was better than. I was legitimately made fun of for hanging out with BIPOC by boys I had crushes on (needless to say, those crushes are no longer). Now that I’m older & more educated, I recognize that this mindset was racist and wrong, and I have changed.
This week has made me think about how much I’ve grown as a person, but also how much growing I still have to do. This week has taught me so much about the love, kindness, selflessness, unity, strength, uniqueness, solidarity & creativity that the Black community radiates.
I’ve educated myself on the ways that America has worked to dehumanize black people in my white eyes and even just in this one week, I’ve dismantled many of these thoughts in my own head. There is still work to be done in and outside of myself, but this week was the nudge that I and the world needed, and for that I am thankful.
@ Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Hello 🌷 We're back from a month-long series of depression naps and emotional breakdowns 🙂 "How are you?" can be an extremely loaded question these days and it's okay to feel 873 emotions all at once. For us, every day has felt different and we're just trying to find ways to adapt, incorporate normalcy and stay sane. ⁠
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The emotional tax of oscillating back and forth between calm and anxious and hopeful and confused and creative and drained is exhausting to say the absolute least. ⁠Cry if you need to cry, laugh if you need to laugh, reach out to a loved one if you need to reach out to a loved one.
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What emotions have you been feeling over the last few weeks? Feel free to let it all out in the comments below. We're in this together & we're here to listen ❤️⁠
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