Keela, Chinyere, Anaya, Deja, and Dezi
Last week after a lengthy conversion on the phone with my mother, my mother asked me if I could say something to my niece Chinyere, because she had something to tell me. So I said ok and waited for my six year old “look alike” to grab the phone.
“Aunt Teetee,” she began sweetly.
“Yes, Chinyere.” I answered.
“Aunt Teetee, I was talking to ValChosen and he said you a boy.” ValChosen is my three and a half year old nephew, and also Chinyere’s younger brother.
“Really!” I said with surprise, “And what did you say?”
“I said, that first of all, you’re Human, and second of all, you’re a girl.” She sounded so proud of herself.
“Well, thank you Chinyere, that was really nice of you.” I was really tickled here. A little later Chinyere handed the phone back to my Mom.
After I hung up from my Mother, I could not stop thinking about the brief conversation I had with my niece and how much she reminded me of me. About five years ago, I remember reading about the results of the Human Genome Project, which basically proved that all humans belong to one race, and that’s the human race. After discovering this online, I decided to share the results with a countless number of family members and friends, and just about anyone else who would listen to my spill that there’s no such thing as a white race, or a black race, or a Latino race of people. The whole concept of race is just a social construct. What we have are groups of people who have evolved over a certain period that may share certain physical traits due to their environment, as well as certain beliefs and traditions or cultures.
I wonder where Chinyere learned about the concept of being human? I definitely haven’t bored her with my rhetoric yet, because basically the child is too young. I can’t image that first graders are dipping into classification systems of biology yet. Nevertheless, she did pleasantly surprise me with her view of me.
I don’t have any children. I am 36-years old and will hit thirty-seven in about a month. I don’t think I’ll have any kids at this point, unless I adopt, and I am very open to that, if I have a committed male partner in my life to share that experience with. In the meantime, the joys in my life come from my many nieces and nephews. I’m so blessed to have them, let alone to even know them. They are the light of my world. They make me feel so special, and it makes me glad to think that even after I’m long and gone, a small part of me will continue to exist because I exist in them. I see myself in them all the time and my siblings say they see me in them as well.
The other day my brother in Orlando called to say hi. He is married with four kids. His youngest daughter Dezi is a fighter. She will fight anyone in a heart beat for messing with her baby brother, or anyone else in the family for that matter. Dezi is two. Actually two and a half. My brother Tommy said last weekend the family was at an outing at Chuck E. Cheese. Tommy said not too long after they had arrived, they noticed that there was another little girl there, about Dezi’s age, that was running around and pushing any little kid that got in her way. Dezi watched her intensely, waiting for her to make her fatal move. The little girl approached DJ, my brother’s 16-month old baby boy, and Dezi sat motionless. The little girl, not aware that she was about to hit the wrong target, pushed DJ, who promptly fell down from his unsteady standing position, and Dezi sprang forward from her seat and tackled the unsuspecting toddler. By the time Tommy and his wife Dee were able to reach Dezi, she had taken the little girl by the head and pounded her to the ground, “You don’t hit my brother, don’t hit my brother!” she yelled through the screams of those around.
I chuckled when my brother Tommy shared this story.
“You know she’s just like you.” My brother had said, “Except she’s angrier. I don’t know where she gets that.”
I don’t know where she gets that either, but growing up, I too would fight anyone if someone messed with my brother. My brother once claimed that I just liked to fight. Tommy says that often times I would pick a fight with his friends, on the pretense of taking up for him. I told him I didn’t know what he was talking about.
My 9-year old niece Keela is a fighter too, but her main target just happens to be boys. She doesn’t have any younger brothers to take up for, so she just fights for her self. Mom says that she’s already been kicked out of the after school program for the year for beating up two little boys. The first fight took place during the first week of school and the second fight took place during the second week of school, and going into the third week, Mom received a letter that Keela wasn’t allowed back. My Mom keeps Keela during the week, and she travels back home to her mother, my younger sister Titusleta on the weekends. To protect the kids in her school, my mother walks Keela to the school doors every morning and picks her up at the schools doors every afternoon. The school is just one block up the street. Of course I laugh when Mom tells me these Keela stories over the phone. Because although Keela has anger management issues (and is also on medication), she’s extremely smart. My sister tested her last year, and Keela has a very high IQ. With her medication she’s making honor roll and has been invited to participate in the school’s academic competition team. I’m so proud of her. She’s so pretty too. Tall and slim for her age, my dark skinned feisty niece is going to do ok. Confidence runs deep in her blood. She’ll be able to do anything she wants when she grows up. Actually I’m so excited about the future for all of my nieces. They all have so much going on for them.
My niece Anaya, who is Chinyere’s twin sister, has the gift of intuition. I recognized it in her when she was not yet two years old. Her mom, who is my sister Rana, and the twins lived with me in South Florida for a while. It was such a treat to share my life with my sister and her twin baby girls in that moment in time. Every day I would come home from work to find two bundles of joy waiting to dance the evening with me. They loved it when I turned on the radio and the three of us moved our feet and flapped our arms to whatever beat blaring over the airwaves. And they loved to explore my room or my purse whenever I wasn’t looking and not even bother to run and hide when caught. One day during their stay, I had to take a business trip to Indianapolis. My sister Rana and the twins were to drive me to the airport. That morning we awoke early to get ready for the trip. For some reason, although I had not communicated to the twins that I was going away, Anaya knew that something was wrong and she followed me from room to room until it was time for us to leave. My heart broke when at one point she stopped and put her tiny brown hand on my luggage and looked up at me with curious eyes. There was no way I could explain to her that I would be away for a week on business, but looking down on those almond eyes, I think she, although not yet two, knew.
When my brother married his wife a few years ago, his new stepdaughter and son were added to the fold of nieces and nephews. His 6-year old stepdaughter, my niece Deja, is the sweetest girl in the whole wide world. This curly haired niece loves to take you by the hand and share her world of toys to anyone happening in the door. She’s a bundle of energy and smart too. Like all of my brother’s small family, she’s bilingual, and according to my brother, she’s bringing home good grades too. She’s so adorable. I just know that my brother and his wife are going to be fighting to keep the teenage boys away once Deja gets of age.
When I think of my nieces I smile at the possibilities. The world is theirs to shape and I can’t wait to see what they make of it. I love them with all my heart.
My nieces, you and your brothers (my nephews) are everything to me. You are so beautiful and strong and I wish the best for you. Go out there now and conquer the world!
Last week after a lengthy conversion on the phone with my mother, my mother asked me if I could say something to my niece Chinyere, because she had something to tell me. So I said ok and waited for my six year old “look alike” to grab the phone.
“Aunt Teetee,” she began sweetly.
“Yes, Chinyere.” I answered.
“Aunt Teetee, I was talking to ValChosen and he said you a boy.” ValChosen is my three and a half year old nephew, and also Chinyere’s younger brother.
“Really!” I said with surprise, “And what did you say?”
“I said, that first of all, you’re Human, and second of all, you’re a girl.” She sounded so proud of herself.
“Well, thank you Chinyere, that was really nice of you.” I was really tickled here. A little later Chinyere handed the phone back to my Mom.
After I hung up from my Mother, I could not stop thinking about the brief conversation I had with my niece and how much she reminded me of me. About five years ago, I remember reading about the results of the Human Genome Project, which basically proved that all humans belong to one race, and that’s the human race. After discovering this online, I decided to share the results with a countless number of family members and friends, and just about anyone else who would listen to my spill that there’s no such thing as a white race, or a black race, or a Latino race of people. The whole concept of race is just a social construct. What we have are groups of people who have evolved over a certain period that may share certain physical traits due to their environment, as well as certain beliefs and traditions or cultures.
I wonder where Chinyere learned about the concept of being human? I definitely haven’t bored her with my rhetoric yet, because basically the child is too young. I can’t image that first graders are dipping into classification systems of biology yet. Nevertheless, she did pleasantly surprise me with her view of me.
I don’t have any children. I am 36-years old and will hit thirty-seven in about a month. I don’t think I’ll have any kids at this point, unless I adopt, and I am very open to that, if I have a committed male partner in my life to share that experience with. In the meantime, the joys in my life come from my many nieces and nephews. I’m so blessed to have them, let alone to even know them. They are the light of my world. They make me feel so special, and it makes me glad to think that even after I’m long and gone, a small part of me will continue to exist because I exist in them. I see myself in them all the time and my siblings say they see me in them as well.
The other day my brother in Orlando called to say hi. He is married with four kids. His youngest daughter Dezi is a fighter. She will fight anyone in a heart beat for messing with her baby brother, or anyone else in the family for that matter. Dezi is two. Actually two and a half. My brother Tommy said last weekend the family was at an outing at Chuck E. Cheese. Tommy said not too long after they had arrived, they noticed that there was another little girl there, about Dezi’s age, that was running around and pushing any little kid that got in her way. Dezi watched her intensely, waiting for her to make her fatal move. The little girl approached DJ, my brother’s 16-month old baby boy, and Dezi sat motionless. The little girl, not aware that she was about to hit the wrong target, pushed DJ, who promptly fell down from his unsteady standing position, and Dezi sprang forward from her seat and tackled the unsuspecting toddler. By the time Tommy and his wife Dee were able to reach Dezi, she had taken the little girl by the head and pounded her to the ground, “You don’t hit my brother, don’t hit my brother!” she yelled through the screams of those around.
I chuckled when my brother Tommy shared this story.
“You know she’s just like you.” My brother had said, “Except she’s angrier. I don’t know where she gets that.”
I don’t know where she gets that either, but growing up, I too would fight anyone if someone messed with my brother. My brother once claimed that I just liked to fight. Tommy says that often times I would pick a fight with his friends, on the pretense of taking up for him. I told him I didn’t know what he was talking about.
My 9-year old niece Keela is a fighter too, but her main target just happens to be boys. She doesn’t have any younger brothers to take up for, so she just fights for her self. Mom says that she’s already been kicked out of the after school program for the year for beating up two little boys. The first fight took place during the first week of school and the second fight took place during the second week of school, and going into the third week, Mom received a letter that Keela wasn’t allowed back. My Mom keeps Keela during the week, and she travels back home to her mother, my younger sister Titusleta on the weekends. To protect the kids in her school, my mother walks Keela to the school doors every morning and picks her up at the schools doors every afternoon. The school is just one block up the street. Of course I laugh when Mom tells me these Keela stories over the phone. Because although Keela has anger management issues (and is also on medication), she’s extremely smart. My sister tested her last year, and Keela has a very high IQ. With her medication she’s making honor roll and has been invited to participate in the school’s academic competition team. I’m so proud of her. She’s so pretty too. Tall and slim for her age, my dark skinned feisty niece is going to do ok. Confidence runs deep in her blood. She’ll be able to do anything she wants when she grows up. Actually I’m so excited about the future for all of my nieces. They all have so much going on for them.
My niece Anaya, who is Chinyere’s twin sister, has the gift of intuition. I recognized it in her when she was not yet two years old. Her mom, who is my sister Rana, and the twins lived with me in South Florida for a while. It was such a treat to share my life with my sister and her twin baby girls in that moment in time. Every day I would come home from work to find two bundles of joy waiting to dance the evening with me. They loved it when I turned on the radio and the three of us moved our feet and flapped our arms to whatever beat blaring over the airwaves. And they loved to explore my room or my purse whenever I wasn’t looking and not even bother to run and hide when caught. One day during their stay, I had to take a business trip to Indianapolis. My sister Rana and the twins were to drive me to the airport. That morning we awoke early to get ready for the trip. For some reason, although I had not communicated to the twins that I was going away, Anaya knew that something was wrong and she followed me from room to room until it was time for us to leave. My heart broke when at one point she stopped and put her tiny brown hand on my luggage and looked up at me with curious eyes. There was no way I could explain to her that I would be away for a week on business, but looking down on those almond eyes, I think she, although not yet two, knew.
When my brother married his wife a few years ago, his new stepdaughter and son were added to the fold of nieces and nephews. His 6-year old stepdaughter, my niece Deja, is the sweetest girl in the whole wide world. This curly haired niece loves to take you by the hand and share her world of toys to anyone happening in the door. She’s a bundle of energy and smart too. Like all of my brother’s small family, she’s bilingual, and according to my brother, she’s bringing home good grades too. She’s so adorable. I just know that my brother and his wife are going to be fighting to keep the teenage boys away once Deja gets of age.
When I think of my nieces I smile at the possibilities. The world is theirs to shape and I can’t wait to see what they make of it. I love them with all my heart.
My nieces, you and your brothers (my nephews) are everything to me. You are so beautiful and strong and I wish the best for you. Go out there now and conquer the world!
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