Chinyere Victoria Nwankudu

Call me Victoria. I am a college student who prefers to spend her time reading Quora answers instead of interacting with actual people. I haven't done many marvelous things in my life, so here are some random episodes that I hope will reveal more about my character and what I think is most important about me.

1) I once stole $300 from my mother, took her car, drove 2.5 hours away from my house, and flew to Nashville, Tennessee to attend a college tour.

2) When I saw my grandmother's eyes roll into the back of her head while she lay, limp, on the damp tiles of our bathroom floor, I ran outside in the dead of night and screamed at God until the ambulance came.

3) The summer of 2014 my self-confidence was delivered to me on a shimmering platter at a week-long program designed to teach youth about the US government. Anyone who has met me since then has met a fundamentally different person than the one who was dragged to that event.

4) At the age of seven I created a hide-out in our backyard shed. I would sit in that spider-infested, dusty cube by myself, perfectly content with my Girl Scout cookies and American Girl books. Sometimes I would draw. Sometimes the drawings were pretty.

5) I learned racism was real from a Childish Gambino interview. I was born with Godiva skin.

6) My friend had just turned thirteen, and she was known for throwing extravagant parties. Sure enough, an invitation was sent to everyone in our teeny private school class to spend three hours of our lives dancing in her garage to Jason Derulo, Lady Gaga, and Britney Spears. I was terrified because I knew the guy I liked would be in attendance. While I was forcing air into and out of my lungs on the car ride to her house, I came up with a plan. Upon reaching the garage door I adjusted the daisy dress I was wearing over ripped jeans and strutted agilely into the room, drinking in the cheers of "WOO-HOO! Victoria is here!" I greeted everyone but him. I flipped my braids over my shoulder, laughing airily. I made cool conversation about all the latest locker gossip. I was bold, beautiful. He was not worthy of my interest and I would make sure he knew it. When I grew tired of Beyonceing (as one does) I made my way to the food station. Playing hard-to-get was backbreaking work, I had found. As I was munching on chocolate covered strawberries, he came up behind me, whispered, "Hello Victoria" in my ear, and hugged me from behind. It is not infrequently that I consider writing a Walmart book on out-of-body experiences, inspired by this sole event.