Ivory'esha

It's official. I've forgotten that I'm white. I know that sounds really strange, but when I first started student teaching, I was very aware of the fact that I was one of the four white people in school (3 being my roommates and myself) because I had never been such a minority before. Things have definitely changed! Sometimes I will be helping a student or sitting close to them on the carpet and all of the sudden I will glance down at my hand or arm next to my students' and it shocks me! For just a brief second the thought goes through my mind that I must be on the verge of death or something for my skin to look so translucent. Apparently this forgetfulness has spread to my students. Yesterday Darjanay drew a picture of her, Ms. Barber, and myself. Ms. Barber told her to go back to her seat and color it. A few minutes later she brought it back to show us. She had colored all three of us black. Nikki and I both looked at each other as we tried not to laugh. I said, "Whoa, I am tan!" Nikki's response (in an ominous tone): "No. You're one of us now!" Darjanay could not figure out what was so funny. She asked, "What?! Did I spell it wrong or something?" Nikki also told me that I need to get a name for my inner-black woman that is starting to come out. She told me that anything that ends in "esha" instantly makes it black and that random apostrophes help. We thought about it for a while and came up with a winner- Ivory'esha. The true indicator that Ivory'esha is moving in is that I was trying to tell my clas, "I was asking...". I know that sounds simple, but the first three times I tried it came out "I was axing". I actually had to slow down and think about it for it to come out right! Oh dear...!