Midnight struck. It was June 16th in Kodiak, Alaska. No storm raged, no snow flake fell, but one small child was born. This young girl was given the name Asha Okasa.
Not long after this event she moved from Alaska to Texas, from Texas to California, and from California to Georgia. It’s been in Georgia that she grew into the 18 year old psychology major at Augusta State University that she is now.
She grew up with no siblings under the care of her single mother and many family members. At the age of six she had to learn an entire new way of life as her aunt and two children joined her and her mother in a two bedroom house. She quickly became like a sibling to her cousins – you know, getting in fights with them over who gets the remote.
As the only Asian-American and one of two non-Caucasians in her family, she felt like an outsider. Her mind fluttered through the possibilities of another life, strengthening a passion for creativity. She was never really able to connect to the Asian half of her which left a hole in her identity. She tried to fill it with tale of other peoples lives. Perhaps, she felt, one of those stories would be the one that would cork the gap from which her questions flowed.
This girl was able to fit well into the family as Mowgli fit in with the wolves. She could go through the motions, but there was always something different. She found that unlike her family it was easy for her to learn from others mistakes, to progress in school, and to challenge herself beyond their expectations.
Though she was told it was social suicide to join the marching band, she did it. Though she was told it was academic suicide to join A.P. classes, she did it. Through this, she found that no one knows your life the way you do, and if you want to live in this world – happily, you have to blaze your own trail.
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