Thursday, January 7th, 2010
“I was born in Colorado and moved here when I was four. I cried and cried when I got here. I called my Mom and said, “How could you do this to me!?’ In Colorado, you don’t see homeless people, you don’t see trash or a lot of poverty. When I got here, it was another planet. I mean, my first memory of this place was the smell. This place stank! But, there were nice things, too. I had never been around so many different kinds of people and things. Everything here was new for me: the bodegas, the metro, the bus, the hair and the style. I still think that the metro is the greatest thing to ever happen to me. I don’t ever want to get a driver’s license!
“Growing up here, I went to a number of different schools and my Mom eventually decided that I needed more structure and sent me to Holton-Arms, a private school in Bethesda. That place was not for me, though. My mind was too all over the place. I really started to find myself when I came to Duke Ellington School of the Arts.
“You know, I honestly don’t have that many friends around my neighborhood in Southeast because it has always been hard for me to fit in. This sounds kind of cliche, but sometimes I don’t feel black enough. When I went to Holton-Arms, I was one of the blackest people there. But, when I was in my neighborhood, I still did not feel black enough and I went through a couple of stages of trying to be blacker. You know, dressing like a hood rat or acting differently, but that wasn’t me. I realized that I had to worry less about what people thought of me and more about what I think of myself. I still struggle with that because identity is perceived as something given to you by other people. That’s not true, though, you have to control your own identity.
“Now, I feel like me. I am a junior studying literary media and communications and feel like this is the right place for me. I still go back-and-forth with my identity, but I am much more comfortable with who I am. This school gave me a pride in who I am and what I do. I appreciate this school so much because it allowed me to be happy. I thank D.C. for helping me find Duke Ellington, which helped me to find myself.”
Sierra, right, is pictured with a classmate on top of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts’ “soapbox.”

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Edge. New home construction in the area is still sohemwat steady, and plans to annex Wyndham, recently announced by developer HHHunt, would only add to the problem over the next several years, according to county planning
Comment by Iizall — October 23, 2012 @ 7:35 am