I don’t understand why there are so many people in the past week being so critical, ranging from not being a good enough daughter due to not working by aunties who have no idea what my life is like, to people pretending to be my friends but actually hating me, to people calling me a “self-hating, ashamed of my ethnicity Somali”>

Honestly, if you have a negative opinion of me, well that is friggin FANTASTIC and you can take that and shove it where the lord has split you because I don’t care.

Yes, really. Guess what.

It won’t CHANGE ME.

My life, is exactly that. MY LIFE and I will LIVE IT EXACTLY HOW I WANT IT.

I’m a good friend, a good daughter, a good student, a good muslim, a good human being and while there are many factors I can improve on, do not tell me what I am.

Do not tell me what your interpretation of me is if your only intention is to just be a witch and to make me feel horrid about myself. I don’t mind criticsm and I accept what people think of think of me, but to a certain extent.

You two calling me a Somali who hates herself and wishes to be another ethnicity is crap you’ve conjured up from nowhere. Seriously, since you two are such great story tellers, maybe you should go into the writing business. I’m sure there are many people you can entertain with your stupid lies.

Just because I enjoy bollywood films and their soundtracks, the fact that I have a large amount of Desi friends, the fact that I want to learn Urdu and ask my friends to teach me, the fact that yes, if a friend did invite me to Pakistan or India etc., especially for a wedding, that I would go, the fact that yes, I feel close to my Desi friends even though I do not understand their language and that I do not share with them the same ethnic background does not make me a hater of my own culture.

Seriously, your naive belief that you must share the same language and culture with your friends in order to truly trust them and love them as your sisters is ASININE.

If you even knew me as much as you claim, you would realize I am the same with my Arab friends. I am working hard to improve my Arabic. I would go to the Middle East in a heartbeat and loved the years I lived and visited the Middle EAST. The amount of Arabic songs I can sing from memory is extensive and yes, just like Desi food, Arab food is another cuisine I am obsessed with. I wish to pick up French. I want to visit Brazil. I want to travel. Yes, I know I have stated I would marry a non-Somali, but at the same time, I would marry a Somali. I am not excluding myself from Somalis. I am going to, if Allah wills, to marry someone based on who they are, not exactly what ethnicity they are.

I speak Somali fluently. I enjoy parts of my culture- the poetry, the art, the poetry and the clothing, the influence of it in my life. Yes, I do not freak about my tribe I am and “rep” it and make sure to state all that comes with it- social standing, reputation and so on, because that creates separation. I know what I am. I know what my family is, what my history is, where my people came from and what goes on back “home.”

But to ask that of me? Somalia is my home. Actually, I’m Ogaden so Ogaden is my “home” if I must be that technical but to be frank, I’m Canadian. Somalia is my roots, Somali is my ethnicity and language, but my nationality is Canadian and my religion is Islam.

I will never bash my own people just to feel closer to another ethnicity, just so that I could “fit” in with my non-somali friends. I feel and truly believe that my non-Somali friends accept me, love me, and trust me as much as they accept, trust, and love the friends they have in which they share the same ethnicity. Call me naive, stupid, whatever. I honestly do not care.

I am friends with Somalis and friends with people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. So back off. What type of food, music, art, history and so on I enjoy other than Somali is none of your concern and does not make me less of a Somali. If anything, it is you guys who are the ones who are less Somali because, even through everything my “home” has gone through, through everything I know and see from the variety of friends I have, I can still stand here and say I truly love who I am. My knowledge and love of other cultures makes me a better person who is also firm in what she knows and believes and who she is.

I’m proud of who I am and where my people have come from.

I can’t say the same for you guys.