Wednesday, February 6. 2019 // The Statement
4B
Wednesday, February 6, 2019 // The Statement
5B
ILLUSTRATION BY MICHELLE FAN
”
NIGHT SHIFT
Get to know your lovely contributors:
Get to know your lovely contributors:
Get to know your lovely contributors:
Get to know your lovely contributors:
Get to know your lovely contributors:
Navigating
SELFluv
as a POC
Navigating
SELFluv
as a POC
Navigating
SELFluv
as a POC
Navigating
SELFluv
as a POC
Navigating
SELFluv
as a POC
Alfredo Delarosa,
also known as Freddie, is a Mexican-
American and a pillar within the Latinx
community. Not only does he devote
his time to various outreach, advocacy,
and activism opportunities, but he is
also dedicated to organizing and creat-
ing many on campus. His empathetic
nature impacts nearly everyone he
encounters which is what makes him
such a powerful leader. He is major-
ing in Biopsychology, Cognition and
Neuroscience, and fitingly minoring in
Community Action and Social change.
largely known as CGB or Cyd, is a black,
westside Detroit native. She is studying
public policy on a pre-law track hop-
ing to play a major role in contribut-
ing to social and educational reform.
This work has already begun as Cyd
is currently researching literacy rates
in Detroit Public Schools to bring to
light inequities in resource allocation.
She also hosts a brilliant podcast that
explores these topics and more called
“The Sit Down” (you can find it on
iTunes <3).
Cydney
Gardner-Brown,
Jose Naut,
Summer Eubank,
Charles Harris Jr.,
is an Afro-Latino male who grew up
in the Dominican Republic before liv-
ing most of his teenage life in Chicago.
Staying active is extremely important
to him which has incited his interest
in sports, most importantly soccer. As
a first-generation student he has made
the most of his time at U-M majoring in
Anthropology with aspiring goals to be
a detective.
is a Tejana-America pre-med student
whose optimistic and warm energy
aligns perfectly with her dream be
able to save lives. Majoring in Neuro-
science and minoring in sustainability
her course load is hectic, therefore she
can often be found in Hatcher plowing
through copious sticky-note to-do lists.
Summer has also committed herself
to numerous volunteer opportunities
locally and even abroad, recently work-
ing in a health clinic serving an under
resourced community in the Domini-
can Republic.
a black rapper and an arguable poet.
Along with his MiC columnist contri-
butions, he expresses himself through
lyrics that embody empowerment as
they fluidly carrying his reflections
and experiences on soulful beats. Look
up C-Note on just about every plat-
form and show him some love. Charles
studies Communications and is also
extremely engaged in campus as a
member of many organizations within
the U-M black community.
How would you personally define self-love?
Freddie: Self-love is being ok even in the case of
your setbacks and failures you can still be a good
person even when making mistakes.
Cyd: Self-love is the necessity of actively seeking
out the beauty in all of your individual flaws, tak-
ing time to work on making your strengths stron-
ger, and then actually believing your own voice
when you hear it say, “I love me”.
Jose: Self-love is accepting yourself for who you
are mentally and physically, and that includes your
flaws. It means not trying to change or adapt to the
expectations of others.
Summer: Self-love is the act of putting your
physical, emotional, social and mental health as a
priority. Also, just the basic care and compassion
towards your body, mind and spirit.
Charles: Self-love is being content with who you
are every morning. Doing things that make you
happy, not just your physical well-being, but also
your mental.
In what ways do your identities play into
your concept of self-love?
Freddie: In the Mexican community, self-love
often means your family is doing well. It’s like a
cultivated focus. So that can occasionally be very
counterintuitive because if you’re always focus-
ing on other people, you don’t have much time
to develop as an individual.
Cyd: The world works very hard to convince
me, as a Black woman, that I am not destined
to be as beautiful or as successful as someone
else. It tells me every single day that if I don’t
play dumb, that if I don’t release some level of
my ambition, that if I just let men take advan-
tage of my complacency, I’ll spend my life alone.
I am told daily that my body is not ideal. That if
I want to be liked, I need to change the way I
look and dress. Under all of that scrutiny, it is
important to me to spend time with myself.
I like to reassure Cydney of her undeniable
self-worth and recognize that the things that
make Cydney who she is, are the reasons why
she is beautiful, capable and strong.
Jose: In contrast to how many Dominicans
are raised machismo pride and lack of emotion,
I was raised on pride in loving myself as a man.
I guess like not being afraid of showing emotion
and embracing emotion in a way that allowed
me to self-reflect.
Summer: Because I value my identity as a
mixed, cis woman, I practice self-love in ways
that are accustomed to those identities. For
example, my femininity screams for different
types of physical love than other genders. Also,
being mixed, I know mentally what differences
I have between the general populous (good and
bad). I use that knowledge to constantly moti-
vate positive thinking and good spirits wher-
ever I go.
Charles: As a dark skinned Black man espe-
cially, I’ve come to have to learn how to love
myself even when the world doesn’t. I realized
that I have had to try even harder to understand
my worth and to ensure to maintain it. I love
the skin I’m in and I use that confidence to my
ability whenever I can. I’m much quicker to
accept myself for who I am, whether it be posi-
tive or negative.
Has your concept of self-love ever recog-
nizably shifted? Explain.
Freddie: I always felt very grounded in my
morals and the things that I saw as being cen-
tral to my sense of self before coming to col-
lege. Then I got to UMich, and like my sense of
identity changed a lot and I wasn’t okay with
that at first because I was like, “Oh fuck, this is
what people appreciated about me before, who
am I now?” Because that’s not what I was doing
anymore. Pretty much it took me a minute to
change my mindset to recognize that even
though those things are important to me, those
things aren’t me.
Cyd: Hell yeah! Self-love for me used to very
superficial. It was not until recently I added
emotional support for myself into the mix. Also
recognizing that sometimes self-care is finding
help when you need it and saying “no” if you
cannot commit to all of the things people are
expecting your commitment for. There is no
inherent value in spreading yourself too thin
for the sake of pleasing other people’s agen-
das. If the thought of being a part of something
brings me dread, I decommit. And you know
what? I’ve stopped feeling guilty about it.
Jose: In high school, I didn’t pay that much
attention to understanding self-love, but after
coming to Michigan I was definitely forced
to pay more attention to it. As I faced more
hardships and struggles, I realized I had to be
grounded in taking care of myself in order to
overcome them.
Summer: My transition from high school
to college changed how I envisioned self-
love for myself. In high school, I loved others
before myself in fear of being ridiculed (usually
because of my difference in beliefs/identities).
As a college student, I now know that I am what
deserves love and I know how to balance caring
for others and myself in HEALTHY ways!
Charles: The most it has shifted in the last
couple years is my relationship with God. The
closer I’ve gotten to him the more I’ve realized
what love is truly, and have been able to apply to
not only others but myself as well.
What do you do when you realize you
haven’t been “self-caring”?
Freddie: The biggest thing that has helped
me is mindfulness, being aware of my own
actions and how my actions are reflected onto
other people. Also recognizing what habits and
qualities in myself are causing me to regress to
those places of not taking care of myself. This
usually looks like focusing on what helped me
have a better day like, “Did I drink coffee in the
morning? Did I hang out with my friends and
study by myself at night?” Also like learning to
be ok with being comfortable with ambiguity
because many things aren’t in our control and
accepting that helps you move forward.
Cyd: It usually takes me a minute to notice,
but I’ll stop working out, stop eating, and I get
moody. That’s when I realize like, “Oh...I need
to spend some time for introspection.” I try to
do small things every day for myself. Like my
end of the day skin/body routine is my safe
place. I like to go through the whole nine yards
slowly with music in the background. Last
night was ’90s hip hop while I did a face mask, I
exfoliated to Adele and I moisturized to smooth
jazz.
Coming back to that consistent routine can
usually ground me after a day that felt *off * for
whatever reason.
Jose: In these times, I usually try to devote
my time to interesting new hobbies, as well as
hanging out with friends and doing just other
simple things I enjoy. These things help take
my mind away from those negative things and
anchors me in the positive aspects of my life.
Summer: When I realize I haven’t been “self-
loving,” I like to see what event happened that
may have thrown off my routine. Then after
reflection, I do something that notoriously
makes me feel better (hang with friends, eat
pickles, with Princess Mononoke, etc.). Engag-
ing in happy actions after reflection can soothe
pent up-emotions. After, I like to plan my days
out and find at least one or two things I can do
that will incorporate more “self-love” in my
routine!
Charles: I personally realize when I haven’t
been doing my self-care routine, is when I
haven’t been writing or taking enough time to
do what I enjoy doing.
What’s your current self- love routine?
Freddie: As I mentioned previously, it focus-
es on mindfulness, like really paying attention
to things surrounding myself. I enjoy being
around people that motivate me and give me
energy. Mentoring other people also helps a
lot, as making sure people are on a good path
means that I have to make sure I’m taking care
of myself.
Cyd: Recently I have been doing self-care in
the form of taking long periods of time with-
out speaking to anyone. I like quietly walking
across campus and thinking about my day and
what I need to do. Another thing that calms
me down is completely decluttering my space.
Every day, when my academic day is over, I get
elated with the thought of coming back to my
room and “putting on my cozies” haha. I end
my day by cleaning (organizing) my room. I
recently hung up my 2019 vision board and I
will also admit that manifestation is the truth
and the way. It’s as powerful as praying! I love
waking up and having my goals be the first
thing I see.
Jose: I definitely seek the company of friends
along with talking to my parents, which replen-
ishes my motivation to keep going so I can be
able to contribute to motivate family back
home. I also really like doing yoga too because it
allows (me) to physically take care of myself in
relaxing myself both physically and mentally.
Summer: My current self-love routine is very
simple! I start my day with a nice skin and hair
care routine. Then I plan out my day so that I
can save any anxiety later and manage my time
better. During the day, I try to find time to do
stuff other than homework or work like read
an article, watch a video or draw. This is a nice
practice to clear your mind throughout the day.
As the day ends, I try to squeeze in a workout, a
shower, and then use essential oils and crystal
energy to ensure a nice sound sleep to restart
my routine.
Charles: For me, my self-care routine is mak-
ing sure that I take the time out to write music
and also eating right. I’ll make sure that I have
something to eat and a smoothie especially,
going to the park is something that brings me
peace, too. Just being in nature helps me realize
that I’m a part of something much bigger than
me. Hearing the birds chirp and the sun glow-
ing on my face always brings a smile to my face.
BY ANA MARÍA SÁNCHEZ-CASTILLO
SENIOR MiC EDITOR