My name is Meera.

When you look at me, What do you see?

I am a sum of parts. A puzzle piece put together. I am my deep green eyes from my Irish and German mom, with the deepened, vibrant skin tone from my Indian father. I am a sum of parts of every experience that had inhabited my genes before I stepped into this world.

I am a Kentuckian. I choose to love this state as my own, caring for it and watching it grow. Perhaps it is not the easiest place for a multiracial woman to thrive in public policy and journalism, but it is my home. It has its ups and downs, but I fell in love with its imperfection. I love to explore and find the crevices of my city that I have not seen.

I am European by heritage, Indian by culture, American by birth, but Kentuckian by choice.

I am a reader. Books have taught me everything I need to know. I read one a week: fiction, non-fiction, random biographies. Reading was my first love in life, and it still is. I love seeing how parallels connect to life, how authors create worlds for themselves and us. It is a special relationship that I enjoy sharing with a stranger every week.

I am a student. This is my eighteenth year of school; I have spent ninety percent of my life in an academic environment. I enjoy the flexibility of college, wandering in and out of interests and classes. I do not thrive on academic success but rather creative endeavors. I struggled with academics most of my life in lieu of creative passions and pure boredom. Failure in that aspect taught me to be self-sufficient and to not work for success. I often daydream about what my life will look like when it does not involve scribbling notes and bubbling in sheets.

I am a creator. Since I was six years old, I have been journaling almost daily. I write when an idea formulates in my head, my google drive has stories from the ups and the downs that chronicled my life. I used to write for frustrated English teachers and Ivy League Admissions, but now I write for myself. I write to express and to exhale.

I am almost twenty. I look onto the horizon of the next decade of my life with the middle of the night thoughts of uncertainty, hope, and a sense of peace. I know my path will take me many directions. I make a vow to myself now, never to be bored and to do something different every three years. I will fail. I will succeed. I will dream.