Be Open (More about Me) - Raafeke

Time to get personal.

Hello! My name is Raafeke, and I figured that after an inconsistent year of being on Medium it’s about time I actually write something about myself. For starters, I am 20, a triplet, a senior at Georgia State University, and a self-published author. I also identify as queer, and my religious doctrine is that animism, the practice of my ancestors. Politically, I am Pan-African, and I believe in liberation for all oppressed peoples. My biggest inspirations right now are Issa Rae and Burna Boy. I hope they both know my name one day.

There was a time when I though that a paragraph like the one above was enough information about me, but this past year and my current relationship have taught me otherwise. I’ve realized that a saying a blurb of information I know by heart does not make me vulnerable. It can make me seem charming and interesting, but it does not let people see who I really am. That’s why I decided this and joint the publication, Be Open. I want to be more vulnerable, foster community, and ultimately become a better writer. I blame this struggle with vulnerability on my upbringing, but also on my Capricorn moon in the 3rd house. Did I forget to say I also I love astrology? Yeah, that’s also one of my things.

I want to talk about writing because I know that many of the readers here are also writers. To me, written language is perhaps the greatest invention we as a species have ever created. This isn’t just because it fuels my occupation as a creative, but because it holds power in a way that other things do not. Written language enables us to write and not only convey information, but to create it. As writers we are perhaps the world’s oldest creators, second only to orators, and even they are writers in a sense. The only difference is that the words are never written on paper. Instead, they are only written in the mind.

For a long time, writing was one of the few things I thought I was naturally good at. Communication is easy for me, much easier than catching a football, singing, drawing, or solving mathematical equations. This didn’t stop me from spending most of my life trying to pursue a science and/or medical career, but I always knew that if I needed a backup plan, my writing would be there. Somehow it would catch me. Two years ago, my backup plan became my only plan, and that was a very uncertain time for me. Now that I am here, two years older and wiser, I still see that uncertainty, but its changed.

Here I am, 20, and I’ve published my first novel, Radiance Lost, and written my first short film, System, which was part of a larger project for Georgia State University. I’ve also decided to also pursue a career in Public Relations. I am feeling more confident in myself and my writing despite not being a NYT best-selling author or famous on Twitter. Writing and committing to being a creative writer has taught me many things; humility, patience, discipline, the list goes on. Most importantly, however, writing has taught me to be as authentic as possible. It’s taught me to be proud of my West Indian background, my queer identity, my occult interests, and my black politics. It’s taught me that embracing one part of myself does not mean I need to reject another. I think of all the roles I have filled as a writer when I craft characters for my stories, and I realized becoming those characters did not betray who I already am, for those characters are slivers of me whether I knew it or not.

This is it. This is me being vulnerable or trying to anyway. It feels sloppy and awkward, but it feels right. For those of you who also struggle to be vulnerable, try writing a story like this. Also, follow the publication, Be Open. It’ll help. It’s helped me. Thank you for reading.

Be Open Says;

Thank you for creating your More About Me' story, Raafeke! :-)