March of 2022 will be exactly one year from when my DNA results came back from ancestry.com. I originally decided to look into my heritage because I was always curious as to who I am and where I originate from and never had that been more realized than when I was in middle school. I grew up and went to school around Hispanics and never was I not constantly learning about their culture, traditions, and overall ways of being. I loved how family-oriented they are and how they know exactly where they come from which I remember being inspired by, but it simultaneously made me curious as to why I do not know where I come from. I recall asking my mother and she brushed it off asking me why it all mattered so much to me, which was not helpful. I then asked my grandmother certain questions about my lineage and she was no help either. The fact that no one knew made me dig deeper until I found out something. The day I actually did receive some worthwhile information was a day I will never forget. My grandmother, who I had asked before, always picked my little sister and I up from school and would sometimes bring visitors, and on this one particular day, she brought her mother, my great-grandmother. As one could imagine, I asked her everything I could think of and remember finding out that our family is originally from Mississippi where my great-grandma was born and her early memories include picking cotton with her mom and relatives and not receiving a whole lot of education growing up. My great-grandmother then as an adult migrated to Chicago where my grandmother's generation on forward, was born and where we all currently reside. While this was not the entire story of our family it was refreshing because it was at least a starting point of reference. This then led me to once again ancestry.com where I was then old enough to start a free account with the clues I had. The problem then becomes that a free account could only carry me so far before running into my next roadblock, the family tree. There was obviously my immediate family as well as cousins aunts and uncles that I could include because they still live in Chicago or neighboring areas so I knew who they were and in some cases grew up with them. However, when it came to family members I do not know of from both my mom and dad's side as well as the generations that proceed them, I once again had very few answers for. This persisted from middle school all the way on to early adulthood where I eventually received bits and pieces about my lineage throughout, but never a full story. The only logical thing to do next was the Ancestry.com DNA test which as an adult I could finally afford and was worth every penny. When my DNA results had finally come back after an entire month of anticipation, I was proud to find out that I am 31 percent Nigerian, 22 percent of Cameroon, Congo, & Western Bantu Peoples, 17 percent of Benin & Togo, 11 percent Mali and 5 percent of Ivory Coast & Ghana which are all surrounding nations and countries on the Continent of Africa. That means that out of the one hundred percentile range, more than half of my DNA comes from the neighboring counties, cities, and villages out of the Continent of Africa. The other 14 percent is made up of other European lands and nations which again means that more than half of my genes, 86 percent to be exact, are made up of African descent. Now quite honestly this new information initially meant everything to me and yet ironically it also meant nothing to me because I still did not know anything concrete about my ancient roots but this is the closest I got, or so I thought. Being determined to feed my never-ending curiosity, I decided to keep searching for more information and found that Slave Trade ran rampant in Nigeria and other West African countries in the nineteenth century and gold was the chief commodity at the center of this trade. The trading of slaves was first done locally and assisted with the empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai being built but then as Portuguese and then European traders started turning to Africa the slave-trading business grew exponentially because Europeans wanted to bring slaves over to what was considered "The New World" so they could work on sugar plantations in what we now know as America. This was done by slave traders who contracted with local kings and chiefs of tribes like the kingdom of Oyo and the Aro Confederacy who supplied Nigerian slaves from the southern and western areas. As a result of this, it is estimated that at least 3.5 million slaves were sent to America from Nigeria. This reasonably would have had to include at least some of my ancestors. Also after looking into my Cameroonian roots, I discovered that the Western and Eastern Bantu people were once altogether on the western border of Cameroon and Nigeria until they split up to where Eastern Bantu people migrated to Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania and Western Bantu people ended up in Angola and Namibia. From there Portuguese merchants began taking slaves from the West Coast in the fifteenth century, and as a result of this many of those slaves ended up in the Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina regions of the Americas. All of this newfound knowledge and worldly experience I gained just through reading about my heritage helped me to see that the common thread that runs through my lineage and specifically through my genes is the meaning and value of hard work and being able to endure hardship by rising above it; these all of which are things I plan on implementing in my school career and in life.

When the word 'friend' or "friendship" comes to my mind, I think of the qualities that endear me to some of my best friends. These friends that I am referring to are loyal beyond question, trustworthy, and supportive. They are the kind of people who are born for hard times because they know exactly what to say or do, even if sometimes that means simply to listen. These friends tell me the truth which I greatly appreciate because even when it hurts, the truth is still and always will be the truth and I would take a person who gives me honest to god criticism rather than someone who feeds me lies any day because I know it is coming from a place of concern. A friend is someone who pulls you up, uplifts you, encourages you to be your best with no room for jealousy or resentment because they really want to see you do well. Most importantly though, a friend to me, is someone who realizes that they are not perfect and neither am I, so when things get tough or when we let each other down, because the reality of life is sometimes we will let each other down, a true friend would be quick to make things right, forgiving not only me when I do something wrong but also forgiving themselves when they do something wrong. In conclusion a friend, a real true friend is a cherised relationship that no one could put a price on nor could no one person say what that looks like everyone. One thing that is consistent of a true friend for all though, is someone that knows and loves you unconditionally and someone that you would gladly give your life up for knowing that they'd do the same for you.

She found me during my AP Summer Brain Camp and basically cornered me! Herself and two other alumni students found me in the High School Library and then they all put the pressure on me to take her class, Advanced Placement Literature and Composition. “Who and what am I talking about?” you are probably wondering. I am talking about my High School English Teacher. I first had her during my Sophomore Year for Honors English II and a lot of people did not like her, mostly because she was a tough grader and she expected you to think and work in her class. She rarely gave out A's and especially on papers because in her eyes "there was always room for improvement." I was not one of the people who did not like her. I was not afraid of hard work and I love using my brain. I have always been intrigued by the notion that humans only use about 10% of their brain capacity so anytime I had the privilege of using my brain, well I considered it as just that - a privilege. Ms. Filo was the name she preferred to be called and she was a deep thinker but it wasn't until my Senior Year that I realized the depth of her knowledge. Flash forward to June of 2016, the summer of AP Brain Camp where the aforementioned happened. I will never forget when a couple Seniors who graduated In May of 2016 and they were all sitting around and talking in the library with Mrs. Filo then suddenly they all kind of see me and storm towards my direction in an eager yet humorous manner. It was confusing and intriguing all at the same time and I had forgotten why I even came to the library in the first place but they continued on about how I am a perfect candidate for APLIT, and then here comes Mrs. Filo with a look of absolute silence yet her eyes and her stance said everything. She had known how I felt about taking AP classes in my Senior year because of the horrible experiences I had the year prior with taking AP US History, but in my mind she orchestrated this whole scenario just for me to reluctantly say 'yes, fine.' She and the others there also promised me that I wouldn't regret it and they could not have been any more correct. Mrs. Filo's class and her overall being taught me how to analyze and then reanalyze everything by looking for clues about a story via the backstory of the author or other pieces of literature that relates. I appreciated that because the real life application shows me how we are all connected to each other, we just have to dig deeper to find out what that connection is. Every piece of literature she chose for us had relevance and was done on purpose. She pushed me to think outside of the box which leads me back to my interest in going to college. I want to continue what she, and even the other alumni students, did for me. I want to pay that forward to the next generation of kids coming up by showing them how to read between the margins, read what's on the page, read what's not on the page and all in the effort of seeing how it connects and resonates not just with them, but with the world around them. This in turn would help them to be able to outline their place in the world and to continue paying that forward.