The Africa that is sold to us is not my Africa, the dry and desolate place filled with starving people and war lords is not my Africa. My Africa is filled with trees that are a heavenly green and the soil bleeds red. My Africa is beautiful so therefore, I am beautiful.

Before my son was born, I valued freedom above anything else. The freedom to do what I wanted, when I wanted, where I wanted, and with whom I wanted. I loved freedom so much that by the age of nineteen I made the fool's choice to move out of my mother's house.