Collection of Beginnings

I’ve spent a lot of time pondering over the word beginning and how I have been faced with several new beginnings over the past 2 years and decided I would share a bit about them. The first beginning was probably the saddest beginning. Packing my whole life in 3 suitcases but leaving the most important treasure behind my family. The move to university was bittersweet the start of my independence and the start of watching my family and loved ones grow from a different part of the world – without ME. I guess my family could also say I was growing without them but at least they had each other. Oh, I forgot to mention where I moved from; I moved from Ghana to America. Ghana is a country in the western part of Africa, which would now help you understand the second beginning. 

The second beginning took a lot of adjustment. Culture shock sums it up. Till date it is the something I am still struggling with. From food to accents and a whole lot of other things. I was stunned at the amount of processed food I had to incorporate into my diet. Now a little insight into a Ghanaian diet, it is very heavy on carbs but almost 95% of the food is made from scratch and by scratch, I mean vegetables. If you have time google Ghanaian food and you’ll understand what I am talking about. Moving on to accents, half the time most people thought I was speaking Jamaican patois probably because of how fast I spoke. Hence, I had to adjust my speed and adopt an accent in order for people to understand me. I’m still learning how certain words are pronounced but I think I’ve gotten better. The several comments on how I speak “good English” for an African tells me so. 

The third beginning was the weirdest. I come from a very strict household so imagine my surprise when my mum asks, “have you found a boyfriend?”. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. Speaking to my friends I realized we had all reached a different stage in life where romantic relationships were the topic of discussion that came up during family conversations (something that wasn’t happening before). 

The fifth beginning was global. One thing every single country has in common right now is COVID-19. The most traumatic beginning. I am a very social person so the pandemic hit me hard when I couldn’t talk to people. Isolation was something I have never experienced. It wrecked me mentally, seeing the death toll rise every day whilst I sat in my room not knowing whether I would wake up to a family member joining the toll did not help either. This is one beginning I hope we can all safely exit from and seal with a the end stamp. 

The most traumatic beginning I would title “the breakup”. Long story short, I had a high school sweetheart who I thought I would get married to. We dated for three years and eventually broke up during the beginning of quarantine. Quarantine a time where I was already mentally struggling so that did not help my isolation at all. Going from texting someone every day to becoming absolute strangers is something I never thought would happen to us. But it did and led to another beginning after several months of sad songs and questioning my self-worth. The “Getting back out there” beginning. Flirting is something I was never good at because I’m too blunt and don’t see the point in going back and forth so I come off as strong. My friends words not mine. Most people in my generation are looking for hook ups and I’m not that kind of person so that crosses out a lot of people I would like, then the second tier of people are either not my type or too boring. So, imagine how crushing it was when I went on vacation and literally found the one but had to let go as I knew fully well long distance would not work out. So now I’m back at the “get back out there stage” starting another new beginning.