Copy of Cultural Heritage Presentation

Hi everyone, my name is pius Phone and today I'll

be sharing with you my cultural heritage presentation.

Um I one of six Children, two of which are

dogs. I'll be showing you a picture of them later.

But I do have an older sister and a younger

sister. And then I also have a younger brother which

you can see at the picture of the very bottom

that was from our trip to Ocean City just a

couple years ago.

Um I'm from Winchester Virginia.

I grew up with a christian upbringing.

Um generations of my family have always been to the

same church.

So um we spent a lot of our sunday is

going to church.

I am black and I am a feminist here at

B. C.

U. I'm a criminal justice major.

And the way that I like to um show my

identity to those around me is through kindness.

I like to consider myself open minded and accepting.

So now if you are a couple of pictures of

my family um at the very top is a picture

of me and my dad and then right beside that

is a picture of me and my mom.

And then underneath the picture of me and my dad.

We have um a picture from when we got to

see my cousin after he came back from the military

right beside that is me and my mom and my

sister, my older sister at my aunt's wedding.

And then besides that is me and my siblings.

Um when we were in the bathroom is putting on

a bunch of face masks and that the bottom is

another picture of my siblings and my mom and then

there is a picture of one of my dogs, she's

the oldest dog.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to upload a picture of my

other little doggy.

Uh huh.

Um Winchester was a relatively small town with a population

of roughly 28,000 people um which compared to like the

city of Richmond is not a lot at all.

Um At times it felt as if everyone knew everyone

in Winchester and this honestly resulted in a lot of

people having a shared set of beliefs and values, which

for Winchester was pretty conservative.

Um I grew up in a predominantly white city which

caused me to feel out of place, feel out of

place a lot of the times as I was growing

up, uh I grew up in the poorer side of

town. Um so I felt like I was always a

step behind the other kids um at my age as

a child has spent many years playing volleyball, but the

experience wasn't as enjoyable as I wished due to commonly

being the only person of color on the teams.

Um So for many for me, it felt like it

was always hard for me to fit in with the

other girls that I was playing with because I was

always kind of the outcast.

Um this experience continued as I made it to high

school. Um and I was often one of the very

few people of color in my Ap classes.

This is something that I feel a lot of us

can relate to.

Um, so to kind of combat this feeling of just

being out of place, me and my parents joined together

to create our, our high schools First Black Student Union

and just in 2020, um, in this club acted as

a safe place for all students to feel comfortable, welcome

and united.

Um, so going up, these are some things that I've

learned. Um, I spent a lot of time attempting to

find a way to fit in with the students that

were around me, who had more materialistic items than I

did. Um, I felt that, um, the only way I

would be able to fit in with them um, was

if I had the items that they had, and again,

a lot of these students were white.

So truly, I, I wish I knew that I was

never really going to fit in with them.

Um My mother played a large role in helping me

become more confident and comfortable with myself as I grew

up. She taught me that items and money do not

define who you are as a person.

This, her teaching me, this allowed me to reflect on

the person I was trying to be and help me

take a step back and look at how this was

really affecting me in my self esteem.

Um, so after this I started to work on myself

and I tried to do anything I could become comfortable

with myself, my skin and my background.

Um So I would no longer feel like I needed

to be someone I wasn't and then all of this

taught me uh to be your own person, even if

it may be hard, which is something that I'm doing

a lot better with.

And of course I still have some times where I

struggle with it, but I'm doing a lot better.

And the nearest some pictures of me growing up um

there's a picture of me and my older sister were

very younger and then here's a picture bright beside that

is a picture of me with some of the other

founding members of the Bs you at john Hanley high

School and then below the picture of me and my

sister is a picture of me and my cousins.

Um We were at the beach, there was a very

long time ago clearly, and then right beside that is

a picture of me in Pre K.

So since I grew up on the more poor side

of town, there was a lot of diversity in my

pre K classes.

But then as I got to high school in middle

school, I started going to schools and the more richards

parts of town, which then was a complete different shift

to being dominantly white students.

Um So growing up, my parents were separated um but

they were never divorced, so they were never married, but

I still went through a separation with them, um, of

a sort, so do do this.

Me and my sister spent the majority of our childhood

traveling between our mother's house and my father's house.

Um, my older sister has a different dead than I

do, but we still work together all the time traveling

between the two houses.

Um, my father's time in the military ultimately led him

to picking up poor habits to ease his PTSD, which

for him, his biggest, uh, challenges his drinking.

So this caused our relationship to window as I got

older since I didn't completely understand his situation and what

he was battling through.

Um, and then I was an accountant.

My mother was able to provide for me and my

siblings a comfortable lifestyle even when we still had time

to struggle as we were moving up to the more

middle class, middle economic class.

Um, so due to my mother moving up a class,

um, we, I was able to get the chance to

see my world beyond my neighborhood as I just showed

in a couple of pictures I've gotten the takeoff, good

amount of, um, a good amount of trips with me

and my family.

So a couple more things that I've learned.

Um, the first one is loving myself is the key

to happiness, which again is something that I still struggle

with. But um, I'm learning that if you're able to

accept and love yourself, the world is the world in

life is going to be a lot easier.

Um another thing is to be grateful for what my

parents provide and the lessons that they teach at the

time. It might, when your parents are trying to teach

you a lesson, it might, you might want to blow

over it, but I'm still learning that a lot of

the times they do know what they're talking about.

So it's a good thing to listen to them.

Um the whole um situation with my parents being separated

and going through their troubles, taught me that I am

a strong independent person and at times when I need

to be, I can act as a caretaker, whether it's

for myself or for any of my siblings around me.

Um something else is being able to forgive those who

have wronged you, so who've wronged uses to strength.

So this was something that I struggled with growing up

with my father.

Um his drinking had put a strain on our family

and um it led to us having a pretty bad

relationship as I've said, but after learning about what he's

been through and forgiving him, we've started be started to

have a really a lot better relationship.

Um and the last one is to be kind and

understanding, you never know what internal shovels a person is

facing. So then I included my foundation.

So these are just some little things I like to

live by.

Um the first one is help those in need, Everyone

should have the right to love who they want to

love, ignorance is what blocks a lot of people from

progression. So ignorance is what blocks a lot of people

from just moving forward and building with one another.

Um, at the end of the day, we're all just

humans, so why spend time and spend our lives, which

is so much hate because at the end of the

day we're just all humans.

Um loving yourself can be the most difficult thing to

do, but as 100% the most needed and then finally

we all have an impact, so it's important to make

yours a positive one.

And finally I wanted to include some of my successes

and challenges that I have in life.

So the first one from my successes is that um

I made a difference in my city through the black

student union.

Um, after creating this club with some of my peers,

um we got a lot of positive feedback from the

students saying that they felt as if they finally had

a place where they could just be themselves and have

a space where they can relate to others.

And again, this club isn't just for black students, it's

for anybody who wanted to join, so it was just

a safe space for all of us to just be

able to just come together and talk honestly.

Um another success is learning that our best tools, our

ears, so listen to others and try your best to

understand. It makes life a lot easier.

Um discovering my values and my motivations is something that

I consider a success.

Um even though I'm only 18, I know I saw

some time to change and grow, but I think as

of right now I have a pretty good set of

morals and values.

Um so another one is I'm there for my family

in their time of need and I built a better

relationship with my father and then my identities allow me

to accept and value those around me.

So for my challenges, um as I've touched on a

couple of times and throughout this presentation, my biggest one

I definitely definitely have to say is my lack of

confidence, whether it be physically mentally or emotionally, um it's

something that I feel has held me back, but as

I've said earlier, I'm definitely trying to do better and

then finally is my stubbornness.

Once I make up my mind, it's hard to persuade

me into something different.

So this is it for my presentation, I hope you

enjoy

Copy of Cultural Heritage Presentation - Kiyah Sloane

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