Becoming My Identity

Becoming who you are is one of the biggest challenges that anyone faces. Being able to juggle the intersection of different identity is challenging. This is the story of how I came to accept and embrace my identity and the process of becoming me. Identifying as Latina, heterosexual, and agnostic have been milestones in my life. My awareness of these identities and the ways which they hold privilege will help me become a better leader and global citizen.

My most salient identity is my ethnicity and race. I was six when I arrived in the United States, but I had never really dealt with the matter of ethnicity before then. The concept of race is not as prominent in Colombia the biggest divider is socioeconomic level. Moving to the state of Kentucky

I applied to college and after I received any scholarship I wondered if it was due to a certain quota a university was trying to fulfill. I constantly questioned if I deserved it. I continuously undermined my challenging work. One day someone found out I got scholarships, which fully covered the expense of attending the Eastern Kentucky and their first response was “I wish I was Latino like you are a minority.” I continued to question myself. Then I received the news I was accepted as an MLK scholar to the University of Louisville and wondered if the university accepted me to be able to fill the female Latina quota. Most of my accomplishment came into question and I wondered if I truly deserved it. I am the only Latina in my years, MLK cohort and although I am aware of my achievement I always wonder if my standing is due to my ethnicity and gender. I even started to feel guilty that there were scholarships that were specifically aimed at minorities. I still struggle with this idea of being an accomplished individual or accomplished for being a Latina. However, I am starting to realize that my accomplishments should never be undermined by what others think because the demanding work I put into things is not for others but because I want to be successful. I also struggled with the idea of not fitting into the Hispanic

I often view my other identities through this lens. My exinitic comes with a whole cultutre—a culture that is different from the culture that I see when I step out of my house.

One of the hardest identities which I have come to develop is my religious beliefs. Although my mom never really told my brother and me what to believe, I did know that she was a devoted Catholic. She grew up in church, even though we didn’t go to church, she prayed every morning and carries a picture of Jesus in her wallet. My mom 's nonchalant attitude towards religion led me to explore different faiths. As a child, I just did what my mom did—she parted, I prayed, she believed and I believed. However, the more I learned, the more doubts I started to have in what her faith preached.

Although most of my life, I identified as catholic to my brother it was apparent that I was not as devoted as he or my mom were. Then a fundamental moment came in my life. My brother turned to me after I said something like, oh my god and he said you don’t even believe in him. I had never really explored my own faith or questioned what I believed in until that moment. I wanted to tell him that I did, but I froze because I knew that he had a point in what he had