Deciding to write a column was no easy decision to make. I thought about how many young writers there are, if my desired audience still even reads the newspaper, my fear of possibly being rejected by the only newspaper I wanted to write for, and a load of other little considerations that delayed this, what is now unfolding on the page right before my eyes.

What will this column be about? I write with the intention to highlight the positive contributions made by young Belizeans, and to share the value-added aspects of the majority of our population. For too long I have read and seen that traditional media has been rife with negative stories of young people, leaving the word “youth” in the category of scorned profanity.

In addition to that, I want to explore the political identity of people like me, the millennial, the urban youth, the Black Nationalist, the nation-builder, the woman, while also bringing to light the story of the indigenous youth, the migrant youth, the LGBTQIA+ youth, and the euphemistic ‘Eastern Division Region 1’ youth within the political environment which so often dictates our societal value.

I hope that my writing incites an open and in-depth conversation about the collective struggles of young people in Belize, one that I live every day. There is, in my mind, no more squatting space for the single story of youth, one where we are painted as perpetrators, murderers, and leeches on the system that is supposed to serve and protect us.

We are innovators, creators, and partners in the development of this young nation of ours. It is time that our voices be amplified in the Belizean novel and to that, I raise my pen, or rather, click open my Microsoft Word and strike my keys.

Informed opinion and advice supported by national, regional and international policy, brought into perspective by history and pumped with the life-blood of real stories, that is what you can expect from Musings by the Curious Non-Conformist.