I had just finished performing a
traditional Indian dance at my school
and I was feeling like a princess now
all I wanted was a cup of frozen yogurt
with gummy bears and cookies on top so I
made my way over to Yogurtland and when
I opened the door along with the rush of
cool air hitting me so did everyone
stares was my Silveira undone was my
makeup smeared I was confused but soon I
was interrupted by a lady who tapped my
shoulder and asked where are you from
I’m from San Diego well I was born in
the Bay Area but that still means I’m
from California
you look yeah I’m Indian but I’m also
American well he can’t be both what who
was she to tell me that I couldn’t be
both Indian and American it seemed like
she was invalidating part of my identity
something so important to me she just
put a label on me but here’s the thing
everyone does it she’s not the only one
think about it the minute we are born we
already possess two labels our
biological sex and our name so it seems
natural to go throughout life labeling
ourselves and others around us how many
of you have labeled yourself or someone
around you so I’m not the only one but
sometimes when we label ourselves and
others we get stuck I love dancing
hip-hop is one of my greatest passions
I’ve been doing it for so many years now
a couple of years ago I joined a dance
studio where the definition of a good
dancer was dancing ballet hip-hop and
ballet are so different so I didn’t
think I was a good dancer I doubted my
style and I tried to mold my body and my
style to what a good dancer was supposed
to be so then I realized that because I
was molding my style to someone else’s
standards and was just dancing to get
validation from other people I was
beginning to lose my love of dance that
was one of the many effects that labels
can have so why do we label we label to
feel comfortable to feel safe like
we know where we belong as in okay I
know who I am I know who you are we both
know how to act around each other and
what to expect from each other I’ve
always considered myself an athlete
since I was three years old my mom put
me in Danish football soccer swimming
gymnastics water polo you name it I’ve
done it
I was considered Tosh the athlete and
then three years ago I dislocated and
fractured my kneecap and it was the
worst experience of my life not only was
my identity taken away from me but I
also had others doubting me during one
particular physical physical therapy
session when I was learning how to walk
again one of my trainers turned to me
and said Tosh are you sure you want to
keep going yeah nothing’s hurting no I
mean do you still want to keep coming to
physical therapy you’re not making much
progress and at this rate who knows if
you’ll ever become an athlete again for
the past two years I had been going to
physical therapy four times a week and
had probably done about 2,000 lunges the
last thing I needed to hear was somebody
tell me what I could and could not do
but the thing that really got me scared
was that she was potentially confirming
my greatest fear who was I if I wasn’t
Tosh the athlete when the one thing that
I defined myself by which was sports was
taken away from me I had literally no
idea who I was anymore so whether it’s
the labels we put on ourselves or the
labels that others impose on us we
acknowledge that they’re coming from a
place of wanting to feel safe safe and
comfortable but really what they’re
doing is driving us apart from each
other and not allowing us to get to know
who we are we are both in high school we
know how this works high school is the
breeding ground for labeling people and
defining each other’s self-worth she’s
the pretty one he’s the jock they’re the
smart ones the list goes on and on and
it’s not only in high school where we
start to label ourselves but it’s also
where we start to label each other for
example I’m not good at lacrosse but I
like English I’m not very artistic but I
like to play the cello I don’t like math
but I’m good at science we know that we
can’t make everyone here in the audience
not label each other or even themselves
but we will ask you to do
one thing do more learning and less
labeling so take the example of the lady
at the yogurt shop what if she had opted
to learn instead of label what if she
had asked me about my clothing or
expressed interest in my heritage we
would have both walked away feeling like
we had learned something from each other
and I know to not have one term to
describe how you feel or what you look
like makes people uneasy but knowledge
is power the more you know the less
likely your a your you will label other
people and label yourself with this
vision in mind and in an effort to
minimize labeling I created a project
called banking on teens and the project
brings financial concepts to middle
schoolers and my effort with this
project is to take the label off of
youth being financially inept so many
people think that and my goal with this
project is to take the knowledge that
they receive and use that power to break
off from this label I still consider
myself an athlete but going through the
experience of having my athletic
pursuits stripped of me
really challenged me to think about who
I was beyond the Tosh the athlete label
I really had to figure out who I was and
what I liked to do and one of the
biggest things that I learned was that I
wanted to help people who felt lonely
depressed unworthy things that I’d felt
when I went through my me experience and
so I started my own enterprise called
silent stories silent stories brings art
workshops to senior centers places where
seniors feel neglected alone they don’t
have family and we do this so that they
will feel loved to valued and heard and
I think we should all do this we should
all really figure out who we are beyond
the labels that those have put on us and
that we happen on ourselves we have the
power to define ourselves what other
people tell us we are we don’t have to
be that labels are constantly changing
they never stick so it’s up to us to
figure out how we want to be labeled and
how we can push beyond those labels and
we know this is challenging in high
school it’s like once you get a label
then you get a squad and then you start
to belong but let’s talk about belonging
when did belonging ever mean that you
have to belong
to one group one category with one
person let’s talk about nature there are
tons of things in nature that break the
binary take a coconut it’s outside
appearance is hard and sturdy but it’s
inside a soft take elephants they look
like powerful intimidating animals yet
they’re proven to be sensitive and
compassionate and kind towards one
another so let’s take a cue from nature
and let’s try to break the binary of who
of how we perceive ourselves versus how
people perceive us
let’s resist the need to label and dial
up on the learning because once we start
to learn then we get a greater
understanding of ourselves and the
people around us and we also gain a
deeper understanding of what it means to
belong we’re in high school and
throughout life people will always be
labeling us and have different opinions
about us but it’s up to us to figure out
how we want to portray ourselves and
push through those labels my name is
Natasha and my name is Manali I’m more
than just an athlete and I’m more than
just Indian American thank you
you
traditional Indian dance at my school
and I was feeling like a princess now
all I wanted was a cup of frozen yogurt
with gummy bears and cookies on top so I
made my way over to Yogurtland and when
I opened the door along with the rush of
cool air hitting me so did everyone
stares was my Silveira undone was my
makeup smeared I was confused but soon I
was interrupted by a lady who tapped my
shoulder and asked where are you from
I’m from San Diego well I was born in
the Bay Area but that still means I’m
from California
you look yeah I’m Indian but I’m also
American well he can’t be both what who
was she to tell me that I couldn’t be
both Indian and American it seemed like
she was invalidating part of my identity
something so important to me she just
put a label on me but here’s the thing
everyone does it she’s not the only one
think about it the minute we are born we
already possess two labels our
biological sex and our name so it seems
natural to go throughout life labeling
ourselves and others around us how many
of you have labeled yourself or someone
around you so I’m not the only one but
sometimes when we label ourselves and
others we get stuck I love dancing
hip-hop is one of my greatest passions
I’ve been doing it for so many years now
a couple of years ago I joined a dance
studio where the definition of a good
dancer was dancing ballet hip-hop and
ballet are so different so I didn’t
think I was a good dancer I doubted my
style and I tried to mold my body and my
style to what a good dancer was supposed
to be so then I realized that because I
was molding my style to someone else’s
standards and was just dancing to get
validation from other people I was
beginning to lose my love of dance that
was one of the many effects that labels
can have so why do we label we label to
feel comfortable to feel safe like
we know where we belong as in okay I
know who I am I know who you are we both
know how to act around each other and
what to expect from each other I’ve
always considered myself an athlete
since I was three years old my mom put
me in Danish football soccer swimming
gymnastics water polo you name it I’ve
done it
I was considered Tosh the athlete and
then three years ago I dislocated and
fractured my kneecap and it was the
worst experience of my life not only was
my identity taken away from me but I
also had others doubting me during one
particular physical physical therapy
session when I was learning how to walk
again one of my trainers turned to me
and said Tosh are you sure you want to
keep going yeah nothing’s hurting no I
mean do you still want to keep coming to
physical therapy you’re not making much
progress and at this rate who knows if
you’ll ever become an athlete again for
the past two years I had been going to
physical therapy four times a week and
had probably done about 2,000 lunges the
last thing I needed to hear was somebody
tell me what I could and could not do
but the thing that really got me scared
was that she was potentially confirming
my greatest fear who was I if I wasn’t
Tosh the athlete when the one thing that
I defined myself by which was sports was
taken away from me I had literally no
idea who I was anymore so whether it’s
the labels we put on ourselves or the
labels that others impose on us we
acknowledge that they’re coming from a
place of wanting to feel safe safe and
comfortable but really what they’re
doing is driving us apart from each
other and not allowing us to get to know
who we are we are both in high school we
know how this works high school is the
breeding ground for labeling people and
defining each other’s self-worth she’s
the pretty one he’s the jock they’re the
smart ones the list goes on and on and
it’s not only in high school where we
start to label ourselves but it’s also
where we start to label each other for
example I’m not good at lacrosse but I
like English I’m not very artistic but I
like to play the cello I don’t like math
but I’m good at science we know that we
can’t make everyone here in the audience
not label each other or even themselves
but we will ask you to do
one thing do more learning and less
labeling so take the example of the lady
at the yogurt shop what if she had opted
to learn instead of label what if she
had asked me about my clothing or
expressed interest in my heritage we
would have both walked away feeling like
we had learned something from each other
and I know to not have one term to
describe how you feel or what you look
like makes people uneasy but knowledge
is power the more you know the less
likely your a your you will label other
people and label yourself with this
vision in mind and in an effort to
minimize labeling I created a project
called banking on teens and the project
brings financial concepts to middle
schoolers and my effort with this
project is to take the label off of
youth being financially inept so many
people think that and my goal with this
project is to take the knowledge that
they receive and use that power to break
off from this label I still consider
myself an athlete but going through the
experience of having my athletic
pursuits stripped of me
really challenged me to think about who
I was beyond the Tosh the athlete label
I really had to figure out who I was and
what I liked to do and one of the
biggest things that I learned was that I
wanted to help people who felt lonely
depressed unworthy things that I’d felt
when I went through my me experience and
so I started my own enterprise called
silent stories silent stories brings art
workshops to senior centers places where
seniors feel neglected alone they don’t
have family and we do this so that they
will feel loved to valued and heard and
I think we should all do this we should
all really figure out who we are beyond
the labels that those have put on us and
that we happen on ourselves we have the
power to define ourselves what other
people tell us we are we don’t have to
be that labels are constantly changing
they never stick so it’s up to us to
figure out how we want to be labeled and
how we can push beyond those labels and
we know this is challenging in high
school it’s like once you get a label
then you get a squad and then you start
to belong but let’s talk about belonging
when did belonging ever mean that you
have to belong
to one group one category with one
person let’s talk about nature there are
tons of things in nature that break the
binary take a coconut it’s outside
appearance is hard and sturdy but it’s
inside a soft take elephants they look
like powerful intimidating animals yet
they’re proven to be sensitive and
compassionate and kind towards one
another so let’s take a cue from nature
and let’s try to break the binary of who
of how we perceive ourselves versus how
people perceive us
let’s resist the need to label and dial
up on the learning because once we start
to learn then we get a greater
understanding of ourselves and the
people around us and we also gain a
deeper understanding of what it means to
belong we’re in high school and
throughout life people will always be
labeling us and have different opinions
about us but it’s up to us to figure out
how we want to portray ourselves and
push through those labels my name is
Natasha and my name is Manali I’m more
than just an athlete and I’m more than
just Indian American thank you
you
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