Nia DaCosta

Like, I wasn't—like, I totally took for granted—

What a gift New York City is in all its imperfections and all its craziness.

I really took for granted like because not just in terms of race, but also in terms of like socioeconomics.

Like I went to school, public school with rich kids and poor kids and everything in between because it's New York City.

So.

You know, going to boarding school, it was like a whole ecosystem that I had to learn.

And it was a rough ride my first year.

I was like, what is happening?

I don't understand these people.

Who am I?

Who do they expect me to be?

And it really shaped me moving forward, actually.

It really...

Like trying to protect myself and my feelings was something that I really had to figure out how to do, you know, moving forward.

But then eventually, again, I kind of matured and then it was like, OK, I'm just going to be myself, I think.

I think that might be the way forward.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think someone said to me, I don't know where you come from, but, you know, we don't do that here.

And I was like, oh, like, you cannot, there is no conformity for me because I'm Black.

Like, you know, like, it doesn't matter if you wear, like, the Birkenstocks and the fleeces and, you know, have a juicy tube.