Actually I am more of a bronze like this chick than black

1) People that touch my hair

Boulder is the only place I have to deal with strangers coming up and touching my hair. This is not cool. I don’t care if you just adopted a baby from Africa and you want to style her hair like mine. Do NOT touch my hair. I mean if you really want to you could at least ask before doing it. I have gotten so used to this that I have a canned response ready for when it happens. I appreciate the compliment about my hair I do not like having it touched.

2) Strangers telling me that they voted for Obama out of the blue

I have close friends who didn’t vote for him and you also assume that I voted for him. I won’t say if I did or not because it’s not the point. The point is you don’t need to have the same political views as me to start a conversation.

3) Assuming that I won’t like or can’t do typical “Boulder” activities

Okay I can’t ski, can’t ride a bike, and the last time I was in a pool I barely made it out alive.* These are activities that people stereotypically believe black people don’t like or can’t do and I can’t do them. That doesn’t mean I never want to do them or don’t like other typical Boulder things.

I absolutely love camping and I have been known to go on a hike or two. I know I need to be more active and slowly I am making that happen. So when you are planning that big camping trip or a hike. You don’t have to do it in secret and feel guilty about not inviting me along, because you can invite me.

*I can swim but the trauma of almost drowning due to others stupidity caused me to never do it again. As for riding a bike, just know trying to teach a 5-year-old to ride a 10-speed down a steep hill will probably not have the greatest results.

4) People asking me if I know their friend who just so happens to be black.

I might have literally seen them around, it’s hard not to notice other people of color in Boulder, but I don’t know any black person that currently lives here. I can count on two hands the black people I know in  all of Colorado.

5) When listening to a rap, people looking at me every time the N-word is said to make sure it’s okay they are listening to rap.

Just substitute the word “ninja” if you feel the need to recite lyrics and we are cool. Music is made for listening. Also you don’t have to put on Hip Hop/Rap or R&B on my account. If you really want to make me happy, you would play Queens of the Stone Age or Violent Femmes.

–

There are few other little things I could have put down, like the box of Dark & Lovely that every store in town feels the need to put on the shelf, but its too nice of a day to stay inside.

I might bitch about living here sometimes,  but over the last few months I have come to big realization.

This is my home.

It shouldn’t be. This is where I went though one of the worst times of my life. When I left in 2003, I told myself there was no way in hell I would ever come back.

But I did come back and I keep coming back.  I have lived here on and off for 7 years.  I have only lived one other place longer, the town where I went to grade and high school, but once I left I never looked back.

Boulder might be the place where my demons showed themselves, but it’s also the place where I overcame them.  This is where for the first time I felt I could truly be my weird and geeky self.

I met my closest friends while attending CU. My first night in town way back in 1998, a cab driver gave me a set of medical slides when he learned I was studying biology.  He told me whatever I ended up doing in life that I would be okay. I don’t know why he had medical slides in his cab but it was one of the best gifts I’ve ever gotten, though a little creepy.

Boulder might not always get the black thing it does get me, and no other place will be able to take its place.

Though I will be moving away again in a few months, there is no doubt in my mind that I will be back someday.

And when I come back, I’ll make sure to bring a hat.