Who Are You?

Who Are You?
by UMES Graduating Senior Kyla Bibbins

Who are you? Besides your name that was most likely given to you by someone other than you, who are you and what are you about? For some of us this question can be answered easily, and then there are some of us who may find the question difficult to respond to. At the beginning of my college career I was struggling to answer the question for myself.

When I arrived at UMES back in August of 2009, I thought I was confident and sure of myself. Until eventually the reality set in that I was about two hours away from home and away from the everyday influence of my family and friends.  To most people they would assume I was homesick, but I knew the feeling was deeper than me being homesick, my self-confidence was slowly starting to diminish.  It was as if I was all alone for the first time in my life. Almost everything that I was familiar to was no longer an aspect of my life. It was like I had to start over with everything that I had worked hard for in High school. In High school I did well with academics, participated in various extracurricular activities and had a job for most of my high school career. When I got to UMES, I did not have a job, did not know what extracurricular I wanted to participate in and I was doing “Ok” with my academics, but not nearly as well as they were in High school.  These factors contributed to me doubting myself. As much as I am reluctant to say, I was also kind of intimidated by some of the other students that seemed so polished and ready for college. I began questioning myself, my passion, my goals and my happiness.

So I began to explore ways for me to express myself. For me writing poems and writing rap songs made it easy for me to vent about my inside feelings. This form of expression was something that I enjoyed doing since I was about 14 years old. But it wasn’t until attending college that I felt I was comfortable enough to share my rap songs and poems with the rest of the world. This expression actually was a networking tool that allowed me to meet many people here at UMES.  I started to realize that by being true to my own interests and talents, everything started to fall into place. Through sharing my music I met people that told me about student organizations and campus jobs that I may be interested in.  It was as if everything that had once satisfied my self-assurance was now unimportant. What became most important to me was doing things that made me happy- writing poetry and making music. For the last two years I have continued to stay true to what makes me happy, I even changed my major from English Education to English so that I can take more courses that concentrated in Telecommunication. Some people frowned upon my decision and even told me that when I graduated I was going to be “jobless” or “broke”.  But I don’t care what other people think or feel, all I know as that I enjoy courses focused in Telecommunications , they make me happy, and when I’m happy I feel good and as selfish as it may seem, all I really want is to be happy.  Besides, I work too hard to graduate and be “jobless”, or “broke”.

 “Who am I?” I have finally come to realize that I am a result of everything I am passionate about. I am passionate about poetry, music and people.

Again I will ask you… “Who are you?”

Kyla Bibbins

UMES Family!

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