this is me

Hello. I am a female in my 20's, born from Samoan and European extraction and I live in New Zealand. I was brought up with a mixture of fa'asamoa and fa'apalagi. Somewhere along the line, I realised I was different - I could operate in both the Samoan and Palagi worlds, although I did not feel complete in either. Even now I feel more at ease in the Samoan world, my life sometimes feels like one big anomaly. When I think I have it all figured out, someone says something or something happens and I feel like I am back to square one!

After much thought I have decided to start this blog 'Afakasi Memoirs. Why? My first answer is "because I can". The more in-depth answer...I am working on that. For now, this is a forum where I can speak freely and whoever cares to read and share may do so. I hope by sharing my story I will be able to understand more about who I am and learn from the wisdom of others.

While trying to figure out a name for this blog, I found a personal definition for the word memoir by Gore Vidal: "a memoir is how one remembers one's own life, while an autobiography is history, requiring research, dates, facts double-checked". Vidal managed to say what I think a memoir is and set it apart from an autobiography.

This is me - Teine 'Afakasi.