Sheliza dives into a conversation where she explores what it is like to consider both surviving and thriving in order to make it in the world. She delves into internalized emotions that she endured along the way like, sadness, anxiety, shame. She balanced many competing identities related to social identities, racial trauma and imposter syndrome. She shares denying her own roots, rejecting her identity, and her big coping mechanism was to shove her experiences aside or hide behind them. She accounts for what imposter syndrome manifested within her, and that knowing she was put together and looked put together to the outside world, but what she had to do in order to stay put together really came at a cost. She explores what it was like under pressure to please others; the unhelpful concept of othering others; unwilling for years to acknowledge the colour of her skin, the sound of her name, and fear associated with being ‘brown’. Through her journey, she has been able to contribute to social justice work, personal growth, and be given opportunities that she can choose to share learnings with other women of colour, and mentor other young women. Her key message to the listeners is that: be kind and compassionate with yourself; each person is a learning and growing being, so keep learning; listen to yourself – physically, mentally, emotionally; think about the resilience of ancestors; and keep working to love yourself.

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