They say choose your battles carefully, but our side of the starting line was chosen for us. Pick by some biased hand in advance, with no perspective for the past or future. We were held hostage in the present with no escape but survival itself. They also say don't judge a book by it's cover; a vow across the nation, but were we not on trial because of our pigmentation? In the years of laws and rights, we learned to define ourselves. One does not identify with by which they are called, but to what they answer to. Imperfect from the inside to out, but pure in our vision for the future. In retrospect it was a battle unchosen, but a battle worth remembering. It our past defined our present, and what a gift it is. Not just for me, for you as well, it is ours.