Throughout my entire life, I viewed myself as an intermediate between my Nigerian and American heritage, because I grew up seeing what both worlds had to offer. During the day at school, the majority of what I heard was in English along with the occasional slang, and my lunches consisted of pizzas, stale hamburgers, and my favorite: nachos with mystery meat and gooey cheese, while during the night at home, the words of my parents’ native language Igbo could be heard all over the house, and from the kitchen aromas that roamed about the house could range from fried plantains with egg to fish and pepper soup would roam. The way I thought of myself was even clearer to see in my name, as “Stacy” is American, and “Godfreey-Igwe” is Nigerian, but …show more content…
This was a question that always seemed to constantly pester me, because I could never seem to decide which nationality I truly belonged to, but sitting here today, I just had a huge revelation, because I found out what I along with every single one of my friends shared in common; we are all 1st generation and that is the category where I know I know I fit in the best in. Although, living life as a 1st generation American had not always been easy, especially with making friends, which proved to be rather difficult to me as a young kid. Only few kids in my grade, including my twin sister, understood the burden of trying to fit it but taking the risk of becoming an “nkata” or an Americanized black person as my parents would say. As I grew older, I began to notice how the two cultures seemed to clash ,especially when it came to the way I wore my hair. My parents preferred and said I looked prettier in tight braids, while my natural hair was “nappy” and “messy”, but some classmates had began to wear their hair natural, and enjoyed it. I had always hated wearing braids, as they could itch, were tight, and my idea of spending a Saturday did not include 8 hours of my neck being stuck in the same position, so in an act of rebellion I took them out and stopped wearing