Today we’d like to introduce you to Miranda Perez.
Miranda, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My story is nothing without its origin in Chicago, Il. In one of the hottest summer’s in the city’s history, I was born to two loving, sixteen-year-old parents in 1999. The ’90s hosted one of the nation’s largest teenage pregnancy booms and my parents were no exception to the odds held against them as inner city youth.
My mother would often tell me that her pregnancy was one of her biggest blessings as it took her away from a life of gang violence, drug dealing, and the overall nature of the streets. My father, on the other hand, was even more motivated to pursue a better life for himself and his growing family in the way he knew how. For the first few years of my life, my parents took shifts on caring for me that was most convenient to their work/school schedules. My mother went back to high school to obtain a degree while working part-time jobs to make extra cash. My father would care for me while she was in school and as soon as she got home, he’d head out to make his money in the streets.
While this system worked for a while, eventually his activity caught up with him and my father was arrested and incarcerated for ten years on the basis of non-violent drug crimes.
As a child, I held a lot of anger in my heart toward my father. While we engaged in visits, phone calls, and written letters, I felt abandoned in ways that I just did not understand. Although I was blessed to have had (and still have) an amazing second (step) father, I was a really emotional child and constantly confused about my father’s incarceration, my home situation, and so much more.
In order to avoid a lot of these thoughts, I turned to read and write. Literature has been a strong part of my life for as long as I could remember. As a child, I loved being able to pick up a book and get transported to a world that was not my own. Reading was my chance to envision settings that surpassed any “hood” I lived in and allowed me to escape any emotions that I was not yet ready to deal with.
For a short portion of my life, I wanted to be an author. I wanted nothing more than to inspire people through the written word the way I have been by great authors before me. However, I also have a huge passion for fashion, so in middle school, I explored the idea of being a fashion journalist. From that point on, it became my goal to break through media and make a difference with words just as I would’ve in creating books, but at a faster pace.
That career decision carried me through a rigorous high-school career as a double honor AP/IB student at Lincoln Park High School in Chicago, Il, which was the fourth rank high-school in the state of Illinois at the time of my matriculation.
Lincoln Park in itself served as the foundation for my college acceptances. I was constantly challenged educationally and socially. Due to these challenges, I pushed myself further than I could ever imagine and landed a spot at Clark Atlanta University, as a first-generation college student.
I am now a rising Junior at Clark Atlanta University, pursuing a degree in Mass Media Arts with a concentration in Print Journalism.
Has it been a smooth road?
My life has been far from a smooth road honestly. One of my largest struggles was grasping the absence of my father in my life. I spend a good amount of my adolescence battling my emotions as I waited on his release from prison. When he was released, it was difficult rebuilding a relationship with him.
A year after he was released, in December of 2015, my mother passed away in a car accident. This forced our relationship to grow at insane speeds as my whole life shifted. I went from just getting to know my father to live with him and the extension of our family that was growing with his fiancee and her children.
While this was a huge shock to my life, I was/am grateful to have lived in such a full house of people. Being around my siblings eased the blow of my mother’s death as I always had a shoulder to cry on or a brother/sister to cuddle up with.
In August of 2016, I lost a cousin who was more like a sister to gun violence. As one could imagine that was like pouring alcohol on an open wound as I was just working on mourning the death of my mother. But this death, like many other deaths in my life, have all sent me subliminal messages of encouragement.
My cousin’s death confirmed that I needed to leave the city to pursue higher education. It showed me first hand the risk factor associated with where we live and who we are tied to by association.
While there have been bumps in the road of my life, I am upset at none of them. Each “bump” has been a huge lesson for me. These bumps in the road show me that my life is destined for a lot of hurts, multiple challenges, and heartache to turn me into the person I’m meant to be.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
My business so to speak is an up and coming blog titled “The Gee Code.” This blog is fresh to the net and serves as a platform for me to write on the challenges/lifestyle of an out-of-state college student in both cities that I reside in for different parts of the year. Additionally, it contains fashion content as that has always been my ideal genre to pursue in journalistic writing.
I’m most proud of the fact that this company is really a reflection of myself. “The Gee” has been a nickname of mine since 2014 when I first honed the name on Instagram (@mimithegee). Throughout my life, “The Gee” has been of huge significance to me as it has obtained various meanings. The letter “g” itself has been interchanged to various things such as “mimi the gangsta”, “mimi the guy”, “mimi the gal”, etc. that represent different phases of my life as far as my fashion sense, my grind, and my dedication to making it out of the environment around me.
What sets me apart as a blogger is my transparency. I have no issue diving into controversial topics or conversations that people are not having. My journalistic motto is “what you need to know, not what you want to hear” because I focus on being the objective truth in a biased world.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I believe that confidence is the most important quality of my personal success. I have heard all my life that people like me don’t make it into the very places that I am today. As a person of color and Chicagoan especially, it is too often that people around us are brainwashed into thinking that we’ll be nothing more than what our environment brings.
But as I heard things of that nature, I always told myself that I would get there. I told myself I would be the first in my family to go to college. I told myself that I would make it out-of-state. I told myself that I would make it out of my teens without a child.
To me, success starts with believing in yourself and affirming yourself. Say what you will accomplish and execute. With that mindset, nothing will be able to stop you.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.thegeecode.com
- Email: mirandap875@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mimithegee/?hl=en
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/mimithegee
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7rVdaeRqlAgLWmTnkubPOA?view_as=subscriber
Image Credit:
Jared T. (Morehouse ’21)
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