WDYDWYD?

[Alex Schrempf]

Alex Schrempf - A&A Discussion 1GWhen asking myself who I am, a come to realize that, growing up in the suburbs, my identity is unique. I was a black kid in a white school, and when I was younger, naturally, I felt out of place. I wanted to fit in, and no matter how hard I tried to, I always stuck out. Not only was my skin darker, I was also taller, stronger, and faster, than most of my peers. Sometimes I would feel ashamed of these things; I think that is what made me as humble as I am today. Since then, I've mature and learned to become proud of who I am. I lived in the suburbs, but had many friends in the city. I was exposed to both extremes of the economic spectrum; my closest friend had an elevator in his house, while most of my basketball teammates' families could barely afford to live in the projects. I learned to be empathetic; I understood what life could be like for other people, and I learned to not take things for granted. In high school, my appearance suggested the obvious: athlete. Countless times I have found myself in an elevator or on a plane next to a stranger and heard the comment "I'm hoping you play basketball?" But my appearance says more; I usually have a camera strapped around my neck, which suggests tourist, though I am usually not one. I usually have headphones on or around my neck, which suggest a music-lover, and I don’t wear massive baggy clothes that sag below my buttocks, which suggests "not-a-ghetto-black-child-that-is usually-the-stereotype", but "an-athlete-artist-tolerant-loving-brother-son-and-friend". I am a photographer, a musician, an athlete, a brother, a son, a friend, and a mentor, and I am all of these things because those segments of my life are what make me feel whole. I express myself through art, better myself through athletics, and strive to be a good person as a whole in order to maintain and withhold all of those aspects of my existence, because without them I wouldn’t be myself.