I got my DNA tested!

After years of wondering where  I came from, wondering if  I really belong, wondering who I actually am, I decided to take a DNA test from Ancestry.com. A friend of mine had come to visit me at my job and she's been pressuring me to take the test for some time. So during the holidays Ancestry.com had a sale on DNA kits and I ordered one. I can't remember how long it took for the test to make it to me, but I was super excited to take it.

The mailman left the test in my mailbox and I literally squealed when I found it. Now, when you take the test you have to wait at least 30 after eating or drinking anything. Luckily, I hadn't had anything for about an hour and was able to take the test right away. 

I opened the box and found this ancestryDNA packet inside with instructions to register the test before actually taking the test. This way Ancestry could send the correct results to me. The company even gives you the option to link it to a tree on the site. When you open the kit, there is a tube that you have to spit in. It's only about a tablespoon of spit, but it took me a couple of tries to fill the vile up to the line. After you fill it, you put a top on it and then you shake it a bit before packaging it up in the pre-addressed box to mail back to Ancestry. 

Waiting for my test results was the longest couple of weeks of my life. I mailed the kit in around the 14th of December and Ancestry started processing it on December 28. A little over a week after processing began, my DNA results were back. Now, I jokingly told my mom that if my results didn't have anything from Africa, she would have some explaining to do. She said, "I'm not explaining anything." Luckily, when my results came back, she didn't have to explain anything.

I knew there would be an overwhelming abundance of British Isles in my DNA. What I wasn't sure of was how much African ancestry I would have, or where that DNA would come from. Finding out that 19% of my DNA comes from Nigeria was kind of an anchoring moment for me. All my life I've been trying to figure out who I am, trying to see if my biology matched what I was raised believing. Seeing Nigeria, Ivory Coast/Ghana, Benin/Togo and other African nations in my DNA helped me no longer feel like I was a Rachel Dolezal-type person. I wasn't faking my heritage. I wasn't a "Mama's baby, Daddy's maybe" like I'd been jokingly told as a child. I wasn't just my siblings "White sister". 

Getting these DNA results did something that 35 years of life experience couldn't do-- helped me feel more centered and like I know who I am. The results gave me a sense of belonging that I've been searching for my entire life. I think I'm starting to find my own identity in a world that wants me to fit their mold.

*This post was NOT sponsored by Ancestry.com