09. Chinonye "Chi Chi" Ebgulem, The Resilient

"Being Nigerian, being Igbo, we are proud. If we have dirty laundry, we don't air it. For so many years, it was like my mother died and because I am so resilient, I was able to just transition so smoothly. I moved into this new home immediately with my birth mom's brother and his wife. But they were like, no, we are your parents now. You call us mom and dad. It wasn't until years later that people in the community realized, wow, we didn't even know that you weren't her biological parents. Because everything was just so taboo coming from being born to parents unwed. You just don't talk about it being born to someone who was a Catholic priest. That's just sheer taboo. It's blasphemy."