- Genealogy Reveal -

3/8/18

Whewww! So I finally received my Ancestry DNA results back this morning and while I was excited and anxious to finally see what they said, a part of me didn't even want to open it >_<. I think it was the fear that I wouldn't be what I thought I was or that now KNOWing would somehow change something about me? It almost felt like what I'd imagine finding out if you are the father or not is like.. okay, probably not the same feeling... But almost. My whole life when people have asked me "What are you?", I've always said "black" & sometimes thrown Native American in there as I'd been told that both of my grandmothers were part Native American ...Even though recently when I asked my dad about it again he said "you know every black person says they're part Native American". o_o

Besides being African American & maybe Native American too, I also figured there was some level of Caucasian involved because of my last name ("Sturtevant" - a Dutch last name given to us by colinizers. Literally. #Wakandaforever). I've also claimed, for a while now (with no actual evidence to back it up) to be Asian somewhere along the line. I don't know where or how I just felt it. *shrug*

Many questions and thoughts floated through my mind as I prepared to find out the results of my genealogy test. What will change after I find out this information? Will I still be able to confidently claim to be Asian? How white AM I? Am I "just black" like I've been saying all these years? Regardless of the answers to these questions I decided that whatEVer I am, I was going to embrace it.

So when I was ready, I took a deep breath and clicked the link to my results! =D

Well, well, well. I'm a Naija girl, eh? Okay, so I expect there to be spraying at my future wedding. Start getting your wallets ready now, thank you.

Lol wow.. All jokes aside, as far as me being "black" I don't think I'd ever given it too much thought about which part of Africa my ancestors actually originated from. Africa is a large continent and along with many other parts of the world outside of The U.S. I'm not as familiar with it's individual countries as I'm sure I should be :-/

 I have many African friends who are from Sierra Leone to Congo, to Ghana to Nigeria and more! Last Sunday I went back to Maryland for my birthday and announced my discovery to my friend and her husband who is Nigerian. I had attended their extravagant, made for TV wedding in 2016 (I always joke with her about how luxurious it was) and enjoyed all the delicious and spicy African food then danced all night to the lit African music the DJ played *fire emoji*. I've always respected African culture and it's deep rooted, longstanding values and traditions and moving forward I hope to learn even more about it!

“For centuries, Mali was a fabled land of gold...”

In briefly learning about these countries from the information provided on Ancestry's site, I made connections to some of their histories and how I feel they may relate to me today. Mali was known for it's gold and ever since I could remember gold has been the only type of jewelry I wear. Besides the fact that I love the way it looks and compliments melanated skin, even if I wanted to wear something else I actually have an allergic reaction to any jewelry that isn't gold or authentic.

“Ivory Coast and Ghana provide about half of the world’s cocoa.”

Another country I saw a connection to is the Ivory Coast/Ghana. Also known for it's gold at a point, this area is now known for it's chocolate. Chocolate is alllmost as important to me as air is. Almost. So in learning this I could only imagine that my love/thirst for chocolate is deep rooted from my ancestors who lived in the land of cocoa.

So about those colonizers though...

I did find this to be kind of interesting when I first saw it. Because of my last name (Sturtevant) I'd always thought that if there was any caucasian down the line it'd be from the Dutch. I thought these results seemed to say otherwise, however, upon doing my Googles I learned that Dutch is a Germanic language that is spoken in the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Switzerland. So while it initially seemed that my ancestors may have been colonized by the British, it looks like theres a good possibility that It was, in fact, the Dutch as I suspected.

Okay, so I guess there was some truth to the whole Native American thing that I had been hearing from my parents all these years. As I stated earlier, I'd been told that both my grandmothers were part Native American but I'd never had proof of it beyond their word. I know that I've always been environmentally conscious and a lover of mother earth. I remember even as a young child that I would always discourage people from littering and to this day I'll say something if I see someone do it. I'm an obsessive recycler, I love flowers, plants, and nature in general so I had looked at these traits as signs of my innate love of the earth inherited from my Native American ancestors.

All in all, this insight into my ancestry has been an interesting experience and I don't plan to stop here. I'm thinking about trying a couple other services such as 23andMe to see if their results match up with Ancestry.com's. I also heard about another service called African Ancestry that delves even deeper into your African lineage and identifies specific regions and tribes in Africa that you come from. In the meantime, I plan to continue doing research about the places I've discovered I'm connected to thus far and I'll keep you all updated as I discover more! ^_^

Oh yea.. and about that whole Asian thing...

"I told yaw ni**as!"

B-DAY RECAP

So yesterday (3/6) was my birthday and my bessfrenn, Lauren came to NY from MD to visit me and celebrate.

We started off by going to one of my favorite brunch spots in Brooklyn, SOCO (socobk.com). I've sampled a few things on their menu (off of other people's plates) but every time I go I have to get their chicken and red velvet waffles so I went with that per usual and Lauren ordered the same. Honestly, I've never been a huge fan of fried chicken (contrary to popular black belief), but THIS chicken is the best fried chicken I've had ANYwhere.

SOCO Brooklyn (socobk.com) 509 Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11205

Menu item: Buttermilk Fried Chicken - Organic Buttermilk Fried Chicken, Red Velvet Waffle

I told our waiter, Lukas that it was my birthday and he promised to "get us lit" and recommended the strongest drinks on the menu. He brought us samples of a couple and tried to convince me to get a pitcher of rum punch which I would've had to myself because Lauren is allergic to one of the ingredients. I appreciated him trying to get me supa turnt for my b-day but we had plans for the rest of the day soo I went with a single drink.

this time.

MARDI GRAS -Rum, passion fruit, orange juice, pineapple juice, cinnamon, nutmeg (left) 

SOCO SANGRIA - White Chablis, Infused with Fresh Seasonal Fruit, & Peach Vodka (right).

After brunch we went back to my place and grabbed some Courvoisier along the way, courtesy of bestie. We chilled with my roommate and put the drank in some water bottles to take with us and then we hopped on the M train to hit the Gucci store on 5th Avenue and check some things out. We started upstairs in the shoe department and worked our way back to the main floor. I had my eye on a few different watches I'd tried on previously but I wasn't completely sold on any of them.

While I waited for Nick, the salesman who had helped me in the past, to be done with his customer I tried on some sunglasses and found a pair I really liked. When he was free, Nick showed me the 3 watches I had looked at about a week ago and I still wasn't loving any of them the way I needed to to spend $600-$800 on them.

Instead, I walked back over to the sunglasses display and tried on the pair I had just found that were cute and after bestie's stamp of approval for confirmation, I went with the shades instead of one of the watches. Before he rung me up, Nick informed me that they were actually the last pair in the store, so me being me, I asked him if their was any type of discount on them because they were the display pair. Not surprisingly, he told me "no, we don't do discounts" and Lauren walked away in embarrassment then called her sister to tell her about it -_- lmaoo.

I always say, "You have not because you ask not" [James 4:2] so Gucci or not, I had to ask *shrug*

Location: Gucci (Gucci.com) - 725 5th Avenue, New York, New York 10022

After our time at the Gucci store (hashtag guccigang), we hopped back on the M train to go back to BK and hit another spot I like for dinner.

We went to an Italian restaurant in Cobble Hill called Panzerotti Bites (panzerottibites.com) which I discovered when the owners were guests on The Untitled Action Bronson Show on Viceland. A Panzerotti (according to their site) is "a half-moon- shaped pocket of dough filled with any number of sweet and savory ingredients. It is then wrapped and delicately fried until golden. During this process, the panzer otto rises, creating a pocket of hot filling, ready to be eaten bite after bite."

I had been to the restaurant once before and had their Salame Panzerotto (Mozzarella, Tomato Sauce, Italian Spicy Salame) and I told the owner, Vittoria that I'd be back to try the Salmon one. So yesterday I made good on my word and came back to try it and as expected, it was delicious. 

Panzerotti Bites - 235 SMITH STREET, BROOKLYN, NY 11231

"Salmon" - Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese, Avocado, Sesame Seeds

From dinner, me and bestie headed to 34th Street so I could drop her off at the bus stop to head back to MD :(. I went back home to relax for the rest of the night and enjoy the few hours left in my bday! 28 is getting off to a great start. <3

Note to Self:

Procrastination is something I've struggled with my whole life. When it's easier to watch tv or hop on social media or do ANYthing but what I'm supposed to be doing, that's usually what I do. I've found that once I finally stop procrastinating and just START, everything after that tends to fall into place.

Stop putting things off. Stop saying tomorrow. Stop feeding distractions.

Start.