Hello and welcome!

Hello and welcome!

My name is Cissy (pronounced “see see” or yes yes in Spanish) Zhang and I’m writing this as I prepare to embark on the last two legs of my journey to Peru.

I’m doing this very last minute because I’ve been putting it off for as long as I possibly can. I have never written a blog before. I dislike how vulnerable writing is. No, that’s not the right way to put it. Rather, I’m scared of how vulnerable writing is. I feel I tend to overshare when I write because I cannot physically see my audience and so I cannot gauge reactions in real time. Where are the boundaries? For me, writing means deciding which thoughts deserve to be out there in the world, and which are better kept in my head. To leave these things for anyone to peruse whenever wherever for potentially the rest of time – because we all know there’s no such thing as deleting something off the internet permanently – is a terrifying thought. But alas, here we are.

I could use a pseudonym, but for me personally, that feels dishonest. I need to be accountable for what I put out there. Actually, we need to backtrack here. If I am to be honest, I must let you know the name Cissy doesn’t legally exist anywhere. All my legal documents say Zhiyi Zhang, but that’s a whole other can of worms. Please just call me Cissy. Thanks.

These days, I don’t know how to introduce myself. I like to think I am more than what I do in school, especially when I’m this close to finishing, but I find that it is an easy place to start. I’m studying Sustainable Agriculture in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded lands of the Musqueam. I genuinely enjoy what I am studying… for the most part. I was born in Beijing, China, but grew up on the traditional and ancestral lands of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Wyandot (in so called “Richmond Hill, Ontario”). I feel honoured and humbled for the opportunity to come to know Indigeneity in the Andes.

I love writing and mailing letters, though university has kept me so busy I almost never get to do it. I started wushu last September because I always wanted to do a martial art, but I realized I don’t like actually fighting people, so wushu is perfect because it’s a very performance-based one. I love to read (or at least I used to), but I am a slow reader and an even slower writer. I am praying I can keep up with this arts course.

That’s all for now, I think. Jon, I really don’t know what you’re looking for with this intro post. I hope this is satisfactory.

Super excited to land in Lima!! I need a shower so badly…