You are what you think

Greetings and welcome to my very first blog post!

To be honest, I’ve always pictured my first blog as being a bit more exciting than a presentation of myself based on a school assignment. But hey, this will have to do.
Now how about we take a trip down memory lane. I was born and spent my entire childhood in  Nairobi, Kenya. I moved to New York City about 5 years ago, and let's just say that referring to these two cultures as "different" would be a massive understatement. 
As our entire student body is aware, we've been exclusively accepted to be a part of the IB Program as of this year. An educational system that provides an internationally accepted qualification for entry into higher teaching. And as we often forget how fortunate we are as students, being the first class in Lyceum Kennedy history to graduate from the IB Program is an honor in itself. My dreams for this year is to therefor surpass every challenge that will present itself, to make myself proud in ways that I could only ever dream of. 
As a child, all I've ever wanted to do was help. People, animals, our ecosystem, you name it. That's what happens when you grow up in a developing country. And although I haven't quite figured out what is it I want to be in the future, I know that I'll be happy. I know that I'll be waking up with a smile on my face every single morning, knowing that I'm doing something that I truly love. That much I can promise myself. 
Now call it a cliché, but as your typical self-conscious teenage girl, I probably don't care about myself as much as I should. And after all, we seem to be living in a extremist country when it comes to our judgmental society these days. My family and friends mean more than the world to me. My interests include astrology, comfy sweaters, philosophy, iced coffee, reading and social media. Genetically, I identify myself through my parents as well as my homeland. My mom is part French, part Swiss and my dad is Sudanese. English was my mother tongue, and although I've been surrounded by either french or african accents during the first 10 years of my life, I was always that peculiar kid in my class who sounded like Hannah Montana. 
I've never been personally invested in my father's culture the same way I've been with my mothers. You see, when it comes to my mom, I feel as though she's given me everything she could personally offer from her culture. She always made sure that my brother and I became  fluent by sending us to french speaking schools. We often visit relatives in Europe. I've been going to my grandparent's house since I was a baby. I've played on the same farm and walked the same streets my mom did as a child.
I find it very sad to think that I've never been to Sudan. I've never visited my fathers home, his environment, his roots, everything that made him into the person he is today. I don't fluently speak Arabic nor have I ever met his parents. In some ways it feels like a small part of me is missing, like I've somehow been robbed of my cultural heritage. 
Language plays a critical role in my life, and I have my parents to thank for that. Their stories inspire me everyday, they both worked hard and sacrificed for what they love. My father was a surgical doctor before he entered a mid-life crisis and switched to politics. At 18 my mom had decided to run as far away as she could from her small home town in Switzerland, out of fear of conformity. Before traveling the world, she lived in England for a year in order to learn english. Everyone talked, criticized, and judged. By the time she was 25, her parents had told her that she was mentally insane for getting engaged to a Sudanese man and settling in Africa, instead of marrying a Swiss banker when she had finished school and becoming an early housewife. Gosh, isn't it crazy to thing that I never would have existed, had she not followed her dream and instead accepted the destiny everyone else decided she was meant to have? 
When I grow up I want to follow in my mother's footsteps (well, at least most of them) I want to travel to countries I've never seen. I want to learn Arabic and pay a well deserved visit to Sudan. I want to breath in and experience every culture I can possibly grasp, because without it humanity would be nothing but a blank. It is the very art of human intellectual achievement, as culture represents every aspect, language, religion and custom ever created. It's a powerful thought, and a mind-blowing realization.