season: divesting from people pleasing (2020)

People pleasing is the practice of making rules for ourselves — it’s the lessons we learn about how to behave. When NK was a Black girl (often the only one) navigating white people and white spaces, people pleasing became habitual. Eventually she lost track of the difference between what whiteness demanded of her and who she was, what she actually wanted. Until her body began to assert itself in ways she couldn’t ignore.