I am from
By Aram Klyn
I am from Minneapolis
The brisk gray city
It’s tall glass towers enclosed by trees
My small house on a quiet street
I am from Columbus
The dull beige capital of Ohio
Speckled with red around the university
The brown brick road of my street
The trees, hanging low
Their bark like sandpaper
I am from Evanston
The leafy suburb just outside Chicago
The classmates who hated me
The classmates who protected me
The bus ride every morning
Part of me is still there
Part of me feels like I never left
I am from Duluth
My grandmothers house, nestled on a hill
The smell of baking wafting through the halls
The happy sounds of my family echoing from downstairs
My dogs scratching at the door
I am from a long line of trans kids
Who don’t feel right in their bodies
Who don’t get what they need
Who don’t get understood
Who don’t get the simple courtesy of being called the right thing
Who’s government passes laws that hurt them
Who get left behind
I am from that hill
Where I sat, alone, for hours
The grass scratching my back
The wind on my face
The yellow sun juxtaposed against the blue sky
The whole of the city laid out before me
I am from those hours spent reading books
And playing video games
And writing stories
Escaping, if just for a moment, to another world
Worlds where things feel possible
Stories with a hero
I am from the chasm of space
Infinite depths of dust
I’m a speck on a speck on a speck
In the vast void
I am from mankind
A flawed race of infinite variety
My heart
My brain
My body
One flawed machine
I am me
A Minnesotan
An Ohioan
A Chicagoan
A trans girl
An introvert
A nerd
A speck
A human
I Am From Project 