- Greetings, my name is Rah Kalon and I'm here to do a poem for you called, "My Self Worth" that flows a little bit Something like this.

"Do you see this face decorated with the most genuine smile either you or I have ever seen?

Y'all I am beaming and truly I am joyous.

It is because I have officially found my self worth.

It had been something I had been searching for for the longest.

Thought after the umbilical cord was cut and I was washed off I might have lost it at birth.

As a little, round, brown girl I distinctly remember looking under rocks and checking for it in the cracks of the bark of oak trees.

I mean, I swam in snake infested creeks and outran rottweilers.

I even survived molestation.

Hoping the recovery from this traumatic situation would lead to the discovery of my self evaluation.

But to my youthful disappointment, I found nothing new in me except for dirt underneath my fingernails, bites on my thighs, and a broken introduction into sexuality.

As a preteen, I remember going through split personality after split personality, after split personality, searching for an identity that would meet my longing need to find what I'm good for, asking God, 'What's my purpose?'

so that I might live my life successfully.

It was my entire being's desire just to start this heart of mind from bleeding.

But years of trying to fit the stereotypical idea of what a person that looks like me should be, well it got me nowhere, once again, except for drowning in the shallow end where I was somehow still in too deep.

It is wild when I recognize I literally lose myself in me.

Years of just idolizing friends, women and men, just trying to find a place where this face, this shape, this hair, and this weight would fit in.

But you see, I came to a glorious place.

Just a couple years ago, I had leased myself out one too many times and thought I had finally stunted my growth.

But in my darkest, most shameful moments, self worth came clearly.

She said, 'Baby girl, I have been here all along so why even look for me?'

She said, 'Yeah, you messed up time and time and time and time and time again, but it's because you gave so little to you and you invested so much in them.'

And you know what I did?

I, I cried, I wailed, I weeped, I begged for her forgiveness.

Told her I was sorry, I was just trying to find my way.

And she smiled, tilted my chin up and whispered, 'No use worrying about yesterday.'

Then she picked me up and held me tighter than a man ever has, and she talked me through my problems better than a best friend could have.

So that very next morning when I awoke and stared into my face, that person so broken before, well they had finally been replaced.

All that remained was self worth.

The weight was lifted from my shoulders.

I remember smiling this exact same high cheekbone smile and demanding that yesterday be over.

So this is my testimony of self worth and I wear it proudly in front of you today.

And it's because the person who was so lonely so lost, so fragmented, well, she finally found her way."