“I believe I found myself starting around freshman year. A big part of realizing who I was was seeing that I didn’t fit in with other people, and acknowledging the fact that I am different and accepting those differences and using them to my advantage. Instead of trying so hard to be someone that I’m not, I figured that I should just accept me being different, or accept not necessarily being accepted by other people. That made me take a step back and almost isolate myself for a while in order to find who I was and in order to figure out every aspect of myself. It helped me appreciate my culture. The process of accepting myself took a while, probably most of freshman and sophomore year. I feel like in junior year, obviously I still have insecurities, but I feel like I’m in a strong point in my life right now. I can say that I accept myself and am confidant in who I am as a person. I think there was a lot of assistance from my sister because she is such a strong-willed person. She had herself figured out in like junior high. She pushed me to figure out who I am as a person and assess who I am.” -Zip Kaffey