My Open Letter to Amanda Seales
Not to carelessly add a label to you of misogynistic invalidation that includes the suppression of the entire being you have clawed your way through to become. Not failing to mention, the tumultuous times you have withstood in order to become the beacon of resilience and hope that profoundly and irrefutably stands here today. Tuh!
Not to even dissect your vernacular, or the way your brain computes erratic, whimsical, immaculate, or ingenious concepts that my mind almost fails in comparison to comprehend most days when the unrelenting brain fog seems to weigh me down with a density so intense.
Feeling so defeated and being incorrectly interpreted at many intervals in my all but linear existence. You, Amanda, you have sought to understand the most knotty, compounded, complex details of my survival… we’ve never met.
How can one, how could a woman, how could I even feel a portion of your truth through a pink book? Ugh, my least favorite color! How could I even resonate to a point of pure tears rushing down my face from a podcast? A podcast?! Furthermore, a hard pill to swallow interview with an unknowingly invalidating Black man who could not dare witness your unguarded truths because of his own perceptions and life’s occurrences.
For you to unapologetically stand solid and unwavering in your truth time and time again, I admire you. You have inadvertently become my safe space over thousands of miles away. Your words serve as hope. Hope. There is optimism in my future. Unrest is gone from me in these moments.
Knowing that you leveraged the havoc meant to destroy you and utilized all of it as your stepping stone only made you stronger, ignited a fire within me so many years ago. Then your interview reawakened the warrior within.
Ms. Amanda Seales, simply put - I see you. I hear you. I validate you. Most importantly, my God, do I understand the intricacies and complexities that naturally flow from the portal of your heart that speaks such truths, your communication is profound.
Aspirations to take an authentic delve into who I am and amplify the ever-vigorous Black woman I am meant to be is rooted within me.
Ms. Seales, thank you for walking in your own individuality, not diluting yourself for the sake of being digestible for others, and most of all - I am grateful to have a role model that is not shaken with ease. The knowledge that pours from you into my realm is only the beginning of me taking authority in my territory, and your selfless opaqueness is much respected.
Sincerely,
Ashleigh Pandora
A 30 Year Old Woman with Irrefutable Aspirations
