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Growing up, I questioned my gender identity a lot, and went through times where I would have considered myself a trans man. It was hard figuring out that I wanted to be seen as a woman and feeling confident in that decision. During the period I was questioning this, I was not supported by any of my family or friends, which in a way pushed me back into the closet. I wish I would have been able to see more representation in my own life, and not just one TV or social media. Over time I decided that what people consider my gender identity doesn't really matter to me, which is why I go by all pronouns. Most people consider me female, which I respect, because some days I go between feeling female and nonbinary. Overall I wish that people could see how being nonbinary doesn't mean the person has to dress androgynous, and that they can still dress how they want and be respected in their pronouns.

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Since my school was not diverse, most of the students I was around spoke the same language, English. I can't imagine how hard it would be for a parent of a different language to come into our school and try to enroll their child for class, because our school system only had three interpreters, one for each school. Especially if the interpreters didn't speak your language, that would be a nightmare. My fiances family speaks Spanish and being around them I started to understand and see how the language barrier affects them, especially his parents, on a daily basis. They can't make phone calls to certain companies, or have parent-teacher conferences without an interpreter, or go out to eat where they don't speak Spanish, or communicate with anyone who doesn't speak Spanish, which is a lot of the time. It is understandable how their main connections are their family and church community because I can see how it would be really hard to make friends with people who don't speak your language, or in a country that judges people who speak a different language because it's not English.

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Growing up in a very white, non-diverse community it was very easy for me to meet people and get along with my classmates, because I myself am white. I had no discrimination against me growing up, which is a huge privilege. And all my classmates looked the same so there was very little tension over differences such as race or religion. I can imagine coming into my school as a person of color and feeling overwhelmed and not wanting to be there because there was very little diversity, within the students and teachers. All the teachers I had from elementary to high school were white, which I honestly never thought about until now. It must have been really hard not being represented inside a school you go to as a person of color.

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I am thankful everyday on how easy it was for me to choose my religion because of the area I grew up in. Christianity was the only religion I ever knew growing up in a small suburban town on the Northshore. The school system I was in was a very white and in a non-diverse area, where I never saw anyone who was any other religion than Christian. For me when I was younger I struggled with it because I didn't want to be Christian and felt that the religion didn't fit my lifestyle. But as I went into college I decided I needed some type of faith to look for in my life, and Christianity was the easiest faith based religion I could enter into. There were clubs on campus, multiple churches in my town and parts of my family were already practicing. As well as the fact that there isn't discrimination in the US against Christians, which made it a lot more appealing to become one rather than a different religion.

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Growing up queer, in the school system I was involved in was very hard in the sense that there was few if any representation within my school and household. It was hard to gain resources through friends, family and my school because people were very judgmental and it was hard even before I realized my queerness. Though after I came out to my mom, she was very supportive in helping me find books and movies that had queer characters that would help me feel more "seen." I helped her realize that representation matters in all areas including LGBT+ and helped her fill her own classroom with inclusive books and posters for her students.

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I was raised in a single-parent household in an upper-class suburb of Northshore Massachusetts. My family struggled a lot financially and we were not able to afford a lot of things that should not be considered luxury such as events my school hosted for us, a car, or even food at some points. Part of this was because my mom was the only one able to provide for us on a low-paying salary. Although it was a privilege to grow up in a suburban town with a low crime rate and with the accessibility to get help for our financial struggles through the government.