Introducing Rheumi Jai
Thank you for allowing me to introduce myself. I’ve been meaning to get to it for a while now and I guess now that I’m feeling a bit brave I can finally give you some idea of who I am. My name is Rheumi Jai and I’m a teacher. I enjoy writing. It’s relaxing and helps me to express my ideas and clear my head. I’m not very good at speaking and I’m actually quite shy. Even more so as I’ve gotten older I find that rather than being more comfortable with myself I’m more awkward than my teen years and often I can feel my heart in my throat and my fingers tremble when I have to introduce myself to a group.
On Medium, I want to write articles about regular everyday life such as relationships, work, and dating but then there are issues that I’m very passionate about like education, poverty eradication, government accountability, corruption prevention, the environment, women’s rights, LGBTQ plus rights, race relations, international relations, and health. Whoosh…. That was a lot. I’m also documenting my thoughts because well, maybe next week, next year, 20, 30, or even 50 years from now I will either be sorely embarrassed or extremely proud of my work. Either way, I hope it will make for an interesting conversation.
Oh, I’m Jamaican, so a lot of my stories and articles are set there but I’ve also been to a few countries and I’m hoping to draw on my experiences to keep the content interesting. I love my country. People say that all the time and spout a façade of patriotism with bursts of grandiose national pride but trust me I truly do. I was in a grocery store in Holland once and I saw a jar of Jerked Seasoning from a popular Jamaican brand and tears just started streaming down my pin ball-sized cheeks. I’m not a very elegant cryer- just to help with the description. It was at that moment that I felt a little disappointed in myself that I hadn’t done enough to change the state of affairs in my country and that I had, in some way of sorts, given up on my vision for Jamaica. You would think I’m someone important right? Maybe the daughter of some nobleman or an heir to a dynasty? Nah, I’m from a working-class family in a not too awful neighborhood in Kingston. In University, I studied International Relations, Gender, and Development Studies and even went on to do a Master of Science in Development Studies. I’m a first-generation college graduate and I love a good book, motorcycles, and football (soccer for my American friends).
Are you still there? Good. Thank you. I’ve realized that people generally don’t like reading long-winded articles or speeches so I’m not going to do that today. Even in polite company I often worry about taking up too much of people’s time. One of my favorite radio programs would start by saying “thank you for allowing me to introduce myself” and I wholeheartedly extend those sentiments to you. I can’t wait to share more of my work with you. Cheers!
