Introducing Me

♥ hello there! ♥

My name is Layla Abdu Abdulalim and I’m currently 18 years old. I was born in North Carolina, raised in the Bay Area, now living in Sacramento, California. The town I spent almost my whole life in is Concord, just about thirty minutes outside of Oakland, California. I lived in between a suburb and a city, but I’ve always been a city gal at heart. It’s a majority white town, lots of hippies and full of that artsy aesthetic. So I grew up deeply involved in arts, music, and drama. But, I also grew up being the only few people of color, and one of the very few Muslims. This was probably one of the biggest challenges in my life, simply because it’s caused me to distance and degrade myself around others, and never truly feel accepted. Those effects still linger with me now, even in college.

I’m the youngest of four children. The age difference between me and my oldest sibling is 12 years. Because of this, he somewhat raised and shaped me as I grew up. My parents were born and raised in Eritrea before they immigrated to the U.S. Because of this, I grew up in a very traditional African household. I speak Tigrinya, a language that most people have never even heard of, and I’m attempting to learn Arabic and French. I have a cat named Jamal, who is the light of my life. My family and I adopted him in 2007 when he was only 8 months old. He’s approaching his 14th birthday, so you can imagine, he’s old.

I played cello for over 5 years in an orchestra and I’m currently on a mission to learn more and more instruments. I think learning how to play an instrument was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. It’s complex, riveting, yet so relaxing and satisfying. I’ve been in honor programs, done many concerts and competition, as well as preformed in a parade. I love to travel with my family. I’ve been to Eritrea, England, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and various states in the U.S. I have a deep love for photography and videography. Art, painting, and creating collages have a little place in my heart. I attended an Art Academy for about a year in high school, where my specialty was photography. I’m kinda obsessed with baking and cooking. I’ve been cooking and baking since I can remember and it’s something I wouldn’t mind taking seriously in the near future. My favorite colors are mauve and black, I like my coffee dark, I’m in between a realist and a pessimist, and my favorite word that’s not really a word is zazzed.

I’m attending Sacramento City College, and my major is currently undecided. For just about my whole life, I had a deep passion for science. I always thought I would major in Biology, specifically parasitology, and go into research. As soon as I reached college, I realized that there were so many more options. I am now in the never-ending spiral, questioning whether I should do what I love, or should I do what best keeps me afloat. I have this fear that in the future, what I use to love doing will turn into something I have to keep doing. I want to make sure what I do is something I will want to do for a very long time. I have this fascination with child development, child psychology, forensic psychology and cognitive science. Hopefully, my plans in the future will fall into place. This is my first year of college, so I’m just going with the flow for now :)♥

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