Me against the world

Adulthood

Now that I've written about my childhood and youth, it's time to speak about my adulthood. Of course I haven't been an adult for a long time, but I am entering a complete new and challenging state of my life. And unfortunately, I already expect something to happen again in the future...

As I got older, less and less things happened and I'm really glad about that. Still, there are small things that makes you aware that you are different. There was a time, where I was helping little children to to do their homework in my old elementary school. I know kids are generally noosey and want to get filled with knowledge. There was a girl, who randomly asked me if I was a refugee. I replied with: "No, I'm not! Why do you think that I am a refugee?" and then she replied: "Well my parents told me that darkskinned people like you are usually refugees." I wasn't actually surprised to hear that and I explained her that not all black people or middle easters are refugees. That made me think a lot that day and again I was shocked what parents can tell their kids. 

What I've also observed over the time, is how people react, when they see a black family driving a very nice car. There are three types of people in this case: Some people seem to be genuinly happy and smile or even give a thumbs up, then there are peope, who are just stunned and stare at you and then there are people who look at you with pure jealousy, enviousness and hate. I take all occasions with humor. For me, it is always funny how they look at the car, then at you and then back at the car again. The facial expressions are priceless and and all of them make me laugh. Even though I take it with humor, it's still sad that some people can't accept, that a black person can have nice things in their life

University

So far, university is much better. It isn't a small one and university is something more international and even more diverse than school or kindergarten. With so many people on the campus, it is for sure a good feeling to finally not get noticed or starred by anyone. Currently, I am studying aerospace engineering and I'm proud to be one of the few females in my studies. Even though, this year has had the highest rate of females ever, we are only 64 out of 354 students. And guess what, there are 4 black people including myself in this study course. But, I'm not the only girl and I'm glad about that to be honest. 

While I was on the phase of meeting knew people, I was glad that I was mainly judged by my character and NOT by the colour of my skin. Yet, there was still something that annoyed me a little bit. While meeting new people, you oblviously ask for each others names. My Name is not that complicated and especialy my last name is VERY simple. When I told that one guy my name, he was like:"Oh your name isn't even that complicated. I expected something like 'Owuwuewuewe onytnwwewe ungtwhurtwhen ossas' or something like that." I usually try to take this with humor, but at the same time it annoys me. Just because I'm african or senegalese, doesn't automaticly mean that I have a complicated name! And he is for sure not the only one. Everytime I have to tell my (last)name, people are always surprised that is so simple or they wait if there is more and when I tell them:"that's it ", I sense how dumbfounded they are. 

I am definitely curios about what will happen in the future. If racism will get less or more again or if it will even disapear?