Fitting In

I wanted to share this journey from creamy crack addiction to embracing natural freedom among other important happenings in my life.  So many people don't understand my choice and I hear comments daily about my decision.  I am not sure if it is because I decided to chop all of mine off and begin a new or if it is the fact that I no longer relax my hair, so it is not "super straight", as many of us as black woman prefer.  Being natural was a difficult choice for me because I have always loved everything about hair. Whether I was wearing a weave or braids or my short crop. And growing up, I remember being called "BB" because my hair was never straight.  I have always had a difficult head to relax.  Some parts would straighten and others wouldn't. But recently, I have been reading blogs, watching youtube videos and everything I can possibly find about having natural hair.  The one thing that I kept reading was I am not my hair.  But then I read one sentence that changed my perspective on those thoughts and challenged my notion that I am not my hair.  It simply read, "I am my hair and my hair is me." And that simple revelation gave way to the ability to explain my choice in a way that not only depicts me, but also speaks volumes about the choices we have as women, not just women of color, but as a woman born into freedom.  We live in a country that affords us the choice to be who we want to be and express our own individuality and uniqueness.  Not one of us are identical. So who are we to try and fit in?

I don't think I have ever really "fit in".  I have always been different.  I have always felt different.  I loved wearing unique clothes that I would beg my mother make from a pattern I would find or designed myself.  I loved being the first in high school to wear a weave and braids thanks to a cousin who had traveled the world. I moved to Baltimore when I was 19 and I finally felt like I could finally fit in, because I didn't have to TRY so hard.  Everyone embraced their uniqueness and it was like living in a world with the motto, "It is what it is, do you." When I moved back to North Carolina four years later, I came home with a shaved head.  Because, after all, I was doing me. I did what made me happy.

You can always grow more hair.  You can always buy more hair, but what you can't buy is freedom with peace of mind.  The object of this post?  Stop trying to fit in and find your uniqueness and embrace it.  There is only one image we should ever try to mimic and that is the image of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You better get in where you can fit in!

GN-AJoy