"I'd be lying if I said the stares didn't bother me at work during my first days of being fully natural, fully self aware. My hair being completely full, some stared because they don't understand. Some stared because of love, admiration, or envy. My sister tried to explain it, the history of our emergence from East Africa 200,000 years ago, yet even then I didn't understand the heritage robbed of me, my heritage's definition masked in chemicals because I needed to assume the look of the land I was born in. But now I rock my hair as a badge of honor, the emergence of who I've always been. Rich in history, rich in definition, and I don't knock my weave queens 'cause hair like shoes are meant in different fashions. I just now lay claim to the hair I was born in. It's been a journey to freedom, a labor of love, and the beginnings of understanding who I am wholly."