Post-Interview Thoughts: Anita

Transcript:

After we did the interview, Anita brought it up a few times in the days and weeks that followed. She kept telling me how she’d never gotten the chance to talk that much about herself, let alone about her identity. Being so young when she came to the U.S., it made sense that fitting in as a kid was a priority for her, so much so that it has creeped its way into her adolescence and young adulthood. It felt as though there was this ever-so-slight shift in the way she spoke once she opened up to me. Like Anita was left so much more aware of the parts of herself that she admires most, pertaining to Italy or not, just by giving them more thought and weight in her mind.

In the times we’ve talked about it since the initial interview, she’s told me what she’s appreciated about having the opportunity to think so much about herself and each aspect of her identity as that ties into her cultural awareness. We are both so young, still figuring out who we are and how we want to be perceived. I think this honestly gave Anita the chance to realize how much control she has over what her identity is comprised of; I hope she sits a little taller when she thinks about who she is as the creative, passionate, and one-of-a-kind Italian-New Yorker that I know her as.