The spring of my senior year of high school I was given the opportunity to replace one of my classes with a senior project. In the past, students have done everything from getting certified as an EMT to building a canoe. I decided to spend the time examining the parts of my identity that I've avoided thinking and talking about, specifically my experience being of mixed race. Being multiracial has been confusing and even a root of some of my insecurities. I've questioned how I should identify and what aspects of my culture I have the right to claim. I've spent days wondering how I'm like my mom and how I'm like my dad. I've found myself constantly thinking about how the world perceives me. Most of all, I wondered if anyone else struggles to understand their mixed identity. These questions have burned in my mind for most of my life, however, for the first time I had the time and ability to answer them. I made the choice to spend the semester learning about my family history, researching the laws on interracial marriage, which I had never learned about in school, and making space for myself to process my internal struggles and emotions towards being multiracial.
If the pure examination of all these things wasn't pushing me out of my comfort zone enough, I went further by deciding to display all of my findings in public by creating an exhibition that would be open to my classmates, teachers, and family. On the exhibition day, I showed the entire community parts of myself I hadn't ever discussed with my closest friends or family. When individuals entered my exhibit they saw a collection pictures, quotes, and reflections that together represented my experiences and identity. Never before had I felt so vulnerable. Before this project, even saying I was multiracial was something I was hesitant about. I usually let people see me however they wanted to, even if it wasn't how I identified. However, that day, putting myself and the various parts of my identity on display, I felt a new sense of empowerment. When people, multiracial and not, responded to my project I began to see how many individuals struggled with aspects of their identity. I realized through sharing my own experience, it made others understand aspects of being multiracial they had previously never considered. But above all, seeing people walk out of my exhibit looking genuinely moved, washed away any insecurities and nerves I had. It made me proud to be multiracial.