About Me

My diverse family has helped me throughout my years to understand and connect with people of different cultures. I was born and raised in Georgetown, Guyana; my Mom is Portuguese and my Dad is Chinese and black. I literally have all these cultures squashed together under one roof of my home in Queens, New York. No one person looks the same in my family, and I’ve been told many times my family and I have a strong Hispanic look. It can be a little ridiculous sometimes having to explain to people exactly what my ethnicity is, because the truth is I cannot possibly be defined by one word—unless there is a box that states ‘other.’ My whole life I’ve seen myself as an ‘other,’ which has me thinking about the different aspects of ethnicity and cultures. Are such words fair to describe a person? America itself is seen as the “melting pot” of cultures, so why try to label or distinguish ourselves amongst the chaos of people? I guess distinguishing ourselves is a way to give people an idea of how to act towards each other. In that case, labels are okay but labels used for racist comments about another’s culture are very inappropriate. Ethnicity is just as important as ones culture because it is a part of who we are as human beings. As a child, my parents have told me many stories about my family tree and the many ethnicities it contained. I learned to embrace my appearances and treasure the mixed blood that is running through my veins.

Guyana's Mashramani

Whether it is Trinidad and Tobago’s carnival or Guyana’s Mashramani, these festivities offer the best time to be in the Caribbean. The region, in general, is a beautiful vacation spot to do a wide range of things: honeymoon, spa getaways, cruises and safari adventures. Trinidad and Tobago is known for its amazing beaches and Guyana for its most diverse tropical rain forests.

Born and raised in Georgetown, Guyana, I have experienced firsthand the wild, crazy fun of Mashramani. It is an Amerindian word, specifically Arawak in origin, which basically means "a venture.” The Amerindians depended on the cultivation of cassava, fishing and hunting in order to survive. After the successful gathering of food, the Amerindian families gather around to enjoy the day in dance and music. Mashramani is exactly that; a celebration for all Guyanese people to come together as “one nation, one people” (Guyana’s motto) to enjoy a day of dance and music.

            

    
          The best part of Mashramani is the revealing, multicolored costumes. Everyone including myself enjoys the once a year, just being comfortable in their own skin. This celebration is a time to enjoy one’s culture and to hear the new releases of reggae and soca music. The date of the celebration is usually held on February 23. If attending, be aware of the nudity, wild partying and vulgar speech.

Dove Movement for Self-Esteem

           We all know the brand Dove, but do we know the self-esteem programs behind the name? Dove operates a unique foundation, women and their inner beauty. Dove is really trying to get their work out to millions by beginning where the education process begins, with young girls of all ages.

            The Uniquely ME! and It's Your Story – Tell It! Are two programs offered to Girl Scouts. The programs promote self-esteem and leadership among tween and teenage girls. It’s    Your Story – Tell It! Teaches girls that, through storytelling and creative expression, they can naturally find who they are as individuals. Building confidence inside and out to create future leaders of the next generation is what drives this foundation.

            Each year, a weekend is sponsored by the Girl Scouts and Dove to bring together all the Girl scouts councils for a Dove self-esteem weekend. The second annual Dove self-esteem weekend was held on October 21-23, 2011 to inspire girls to reach their full potential. The girls spend time with other girls their age, with similar self-esteem issues. The bond and friendships the girls experience there, and in any other of the programs nationwide, really shows the girls that they are not alone finding a positive self image. 

Bringing  encouragement and self motivation to women and girls nationwide is what the Dove Movement for Self-Esteem is doing and will continue to do until women are no longer affected by false beauty or false portrayals of beauty as confidence.

What Does It Take For One To Become A Writer?

            Browsing on the internet I came across this topic. I find this scenario extremely funny because not even twenty minutes had passed when I had my interactive media class that talks all about online writing and I still didn’t think to write about this topic. I enjoy this class very much because not only do we learn the tricks and inside scoops of how to possibly make money off of online writing, but we have special guests that have in some way or other got a foot in the door to encouraging people to follow their online websites. With enough views, one has the option to turn their small website into something huge.

  (Step 1) Mastering the craft

            Writing as a whole comes down to that one most important thing, mastering the craft. Being able to properly express yourself through words puts you on the right track, but being able to grammatically and structurally write well puts you in the fast lane.

  (Step 2) Practice

            If you believe anyone can be a writer, take that thought completely out of your mind because it takes a lot more than a Microsoft document and typing on keys to make a person a writer. One must be proficient in whatever skill they may hold dear to him/her to truly be happy and confident in what they spend their time creating. Writing is no different: practice, practice, practice is needed to get stronger and more fluent.

 (Step 3) Find your style of writing

            How do you feel most comfortable writing? Are you a person that likes hard core and straightforward facts? Maybe there is a fun side to you that likes to be silly. If so, don’t be afraid to share with others. Some people treasure their thoughts and believe that by expressing it in opinion pieces. Others prefer creative, fantasy writing styles. Discovering where you fall will help you focus more on knowing who you are as a writer, which eventually helps build your confidence in your own writing.
(Step 4) Check, double check and triple check your work

Editing your work comes down to intense concentration, making sure you applied the right word here or there and placing periods and commas in the right places. Check spelling as you read your work out loud because spell-check doesn’t catch everything. Pay attention to what is being written because maybe you meant to type a word you had in mind but you made a mistake by spelling another word that is spelled correctly. Then you realize the word makes no sense in the sentence. The more focused writer you are by catching your own mistakes, the more reliant and saleable you are. It’s like fast food, say McDonalds never screws up your order, of course you will keep buying food from them because you have nothing to complain about. The same goes for a writer if your editor has little to edit on your daily assignments, the more pleased he will be, and the longer you will have your job.

 (Step 5) Don’t be afraid to share your work

            Every writer goes through a phase where they want to lock themselves away to get better work done. However, with that isolation you become nervous for others to read your work. Also, insecurities can cause you to hold back sharing too. Think! Think! Think! is all I’m going to say because if you choose to hold back on something that could possibly be amazing in someone else’s eyes, you have just missed out on receiving compliments on your work. Not only is it nice to receive compliments but also it’s nice to see your work published in any way, shape or form. Seeing your name in bold letters next to your article puts a smile on your face and many times after that, you will learn to embrace it.

(Step 6) Branch out

This is one of the most important steps, so take what I say seriously. Some writers limit themselves when it comes to certain areas of writing because they feel “that’s it, I found my place in the world.” It never hurts to keep expanding your horizons and writing about things that you may have found boring. Again, think! How would you possibly know that something is not for you unless you tried it? If you did and then you absolutely hate it still, now that is a different story.