Halloween

Tags

alaadin, belle, brown girl, costumes, couple, halloween, indian, jasmine

When I was a cute little girl, I was odd. Very odd. That hasn’t changed much, of course. But I didn’t like chocolate! I know, you’re all surprised, how can a person actually dislike the greatest invention ever?!? Like I said, I was an odd little girl. I didn’t start liking chocolate until I was probably close to 10 years old, at which point I would only eat white chocolate.

Anyway, in those young years, all my friends would look forward to Halloween so they could dress up in cool costumes. Let me clarify that, actually. All my non-brown friends would look forward to dressing up in cool costumes. My brown friends and I, we knew exactly what we would be each year. It was the same thing we had always been and would always be until we were old enough to make or buy our own costumes. What was this amazing costume, you ask? Indian Princess.

Here is what an Indian Princess outfit consists of: wearing a tradition dress. Yup, that’s it. Nothing more, nothing less. We would pretend at school that we were super cool because we were dressed as an Indian Princess. I mean, we were wearing this super pretty dress that always stole everybody’s attention. Truth is, though, our parents found it pointless to buy us costumes and they found an easy way out.

After I grew up, I swore never to be an Indian Princess for Halloween again. I was sick of that “costume”! I was, until this year when a good friend pointed out how cute of a couples costume Jasmine and Aladdin would make! Now, obviously, I don’t plan on ever wearing a full Indian dress as a costume, but maybe incorporating parts of it into a costume won’t be too bad of an idea, right?

Too bad Belle isn’t brown, she would’ve made an amazing brown Disney Princess.

brown girl out.

Reese’s

Tags

awesome, brown girl, chocolate, peanut butter, reese's

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are basically the greatest things ever. For some odd reason, I used to never like them. My freshmen year roommate in college was obsessed with Reese’s. And when I say obsessed, I mean, this girl had a stack of them with her at all times. During Halloween time, we even had 3 bowls of them. One white chocolate, one regular and one dark. It was quite intense.

Somehow, she got me hooked on Reese’s. I went from eating one maybe every 2 years to one every…um, 2 minutes. Okay, I wasn’t that bad but I would still have a few per day. It went from being one of my least favorite chocolates to one of my favorites.

Now, I look forward to Halloween time because they always have the best deals for Reese’s. So, this year, when October came, I was on the lookout for the best deal for my addiction. I finally found that deal this past weekend. Not only was it a large amount for a very cheap price, but it had 3 different flavors! Usually, 3 flavors means white, milk and dark chocolate. I’ve never been a big fan of dark chocolate, but I’ve always liked milk with white chocolate being my number 1 choice. Well, this time, the 3 flavors weren’t white, milk and dark! White chocolate and milk chocolate were obviously included. But the 3rd flavor? Orange milk chocolate on the outside with peanut butter AND white chocolate on the inside. It was all the great things of Reese’s combined into one epic chocolate bar!

For those of you who have yet to discover this phenomenal creation, I suggest you go out and buy it for yourself. You won’t be disappointed.

brown girl out.

Text

Tags

awkward, brown girl, brown mother, mom, mother, text

Maybe I’m the only one who obsesses over this, but I triple check who I’m sending texts to. A few years ago, I accidentally sent a text to my mother, and it was definitely not meant for her! Needless to say, the next few weeks were awkward between us. I would “miss her calls” or “accidentally reject her calls”.

You’re probably wondering what this text might have been about. Yup, you guessed it! It had to do with um, something private involving the opposite gender. Now, here’s the thing about brown families, such topics are never discussed! Ever! Until that text, I think my mom pretended I didn’t know anything. But then again, I think she still pretends that.

So, now, as crazy as it may seem, I check who I’m sending the text to multiple times before I hit the send button. Awkward moments avoided. I suggest you do the same, unless you enjoy awkward conversations with your mother. I’ll go ahead an assume you don’t, so check away!

brown girl out.

Language mix-ups

Tags

awkward, brown girl, brown grandma, grandma, grandparents, language

When you’re learning a new language, words seem to get mixed up often. You say things in odd ways or you pronounce it wrong or something always happens. You always say it with the best of intentions, but it gets lost in translation somewhere.

A few years ago, my sweet old grandmother had come for a visit. She lived in the motherland, aka Brown Country. She didn’t know much English, and the previous times she had come, it was with my grandfather. Unfortunately, he had passed away and she had made the journey here by herself. Which meant, her not knowing much English, made things quite difficult at times for her.

However, my sister, cousins and I had been trying to teach my grandmother English for the longest time. Due to old age, though, she had gotten quite forgetful and had a hard time keeping track of the few words and phrases we had taught her. We would continuously quiz her on them daily, but she would get frustrated with us very easily and thus would end our daily attempts at teaching her.

We had succeeded in teaching her how to say “I love you”, “I love you too”, “How are you?”, and “I am fine, thank you.” On good days, she’d remember “What’re you up to?”

While she was here, she loved going on walks around our neighborhood. She had come in the fall, so she’d bundle up and admire the beautiful fall colors.

On this particular day, my sister decided to join my grandmother on one of her numerous walks. My sister was on her roller blades,  and so was a few steps ahead of my grandmother. As is the norm, many people would walk by and say “Hey, how’s it going?” My grandmother would just usually smile and nod her head, but she decided to put her English to the test. A man walked by and asked her something along the lines of “How’s it going?”

Now, remember what I had said about the phrases she knew and how she’d frequently mix them up? Her response to this man was, “I love you, too.”

brown girl out.

Clumps

Tags

brown friends, brown girl, friends, friendship

I thought it was the most odd thing when I saw brown people travel in clumps. You’ve seen it, right? It’s odd. They’re all together, in groups of 3-infinity. You never really know how to approach them either because there are so many of them!

I used to even sometimes joke about it with my friends. I thought I was different because I had “so many” non-brown friends. I didn’t go out with just brown friends. I had white friends I would hang out with. I even enjoyed doing white people activities. Clearly, I wasn’t like the rest of the brown population.

To my dismay, I realized how truly wrong I was. Although, I did have many white friends, I had an equal number of brown friends.

I still remember the moment I realized I was no different. It was the second month of my freshmen year of college and I was sitting on the bus. I was near the middle-front. I heard some loud, thickly accented voices coming from behind. I prepared myself for the huge group of brown people that I knew would stare back at me if I looked. But I couldn’t help looking. So, as casually as I could, I peeked a glance behind me. I saw 3 brown girls and 2 brown guys, who were staring right back at me. I quickly turned around and rolled my eyes and thought to myself, “Why can’t they just go anywhere by themselves?”

Oh, did I forget to mention, I was with two friends. Two brown friends. I turned to one of them and asked if it annoys him as much as it annoys me that brown people always travel together. Any normal person, at this point, would have realized how absolutely and ridiculously hypocritical they were being. However, it is a well known fact that normal is the last word to describe me. My other friend, however, realized this very quickly and pointed it out to me. “Um, you realize there’s 3 of us and not only are we going somewhere together, but we’re also brown, right?”

brown girl out.

Sarcasm

Tags

awkward, brown girl, brown parents, sarcasm

Growing up in a brown household, I was deprived of all usage of sarcasm. Being the oldest, didn’t help me in the sarcasm department much either. Which might not seem as though it’s a big deal to many, but let me tell you, those awkward middle school moments might have been less awkward if I understood sarcasm.

Don’t get me wrong, my parents made jokes (which everybody but me found funny) and even occasionally laughed at mine. Sarcasm, though, was something that wasn’t practiced as much. The few times I do remember them being, what I assume to be, sarcastic, I would attempt to awkwardly laugh at it and quickly be given the brown parent stare. You know the one I’m talking about, right?

My least favorite form of sarcasm, and also the most common is the “No way! Really?!?!” I used to always assume the other person was being serious when they said that and continue on telling them whatever I had been talking about. Unfortunately, I have realized that this is actually the other person being sarcastic. It always leads to a moment where they look at you as if you are quite possibly the most socially inept person in the world for not understanding sarcasm. Which makes me just smile awkwardly.

These days, I have found that it is best to skip these unnecessary steps and go straight to my awkward smile. Sometimes, I’ll even through in an awkward laugh.

brown girl out.