Melanie Randolph
Longview, WA
I really knew nothing about my heritage until I was 44 and chose to research my birth family. It’s weird to know nothing at all in a world that is so hung up on where they come from. I look so generic. Brown hair, brown eyes, average height. I assumed Italian because I’m given to quick emotions and tend to be kinda mafioso in my outlook: tight friends and family and a tendency to hold a grudge 🙂 It turns out my paternal grandfather was full blooded Native American and strangely my birth siblings (my birth father was already deceased) never knew which tribal affiliation because they weren’t allowed to discuss it growing up because it was a source of shame. So sad.. My birth mom, also deceased, was German and Irish. So German, Irish, and Native American..it really explains why I get a little crazy when I drink too much. So, the past 2 years have been fun, because now when my horrific sense of direction fails me yet again, my husband will throw in a remark like..” How did your Native People ever survive out there, when you can’t even remember how to get the same airport you’ve been going to since you were 18?” The point is..is doesn’t matter where we came from and what percent (fill in the blank) we are comprised of. We spend so much time worrying about what we look like and what people are thinking about us that we all end up anxious and confused and angry and sad. We need to just start loving the heck out of each other. To take pride not in color and race but in each other as individuals and how we can help each other along in this journey.
