My Name
Hello, my name is Lavaunte Barnes. I am a sixteen year old girl living Chicago, Illinois. My birthday is on June sixteenth. I come from a two parent household and I have one little brother and a dog. My parents are high school sweethearts, they have been together for a very long time.. seventeen years to be exact. Furthermore, my brother is named after my dad but my name actually came from my dad’s dream. My parents tell me this story one million times a day. When my mom was 7 months pregnant and they were sleep in bed. My dad had a dream a school kept calling him telling him to pick up Lavaunte. He woke up my mom very excited yelling “LAVAUNTE! LAVAUNTE! HER NAME IS GOING TO BE LAVAUNTE!”
My very pregnant mom was not happy about being woken up but she loved the name so they stuck with it, now here I am. People mispronounce my name all the time but I don’t get offended by it. Now, if your getting it wrong on purpose, then I am going to stop responding to you, but I understand people make mistakes. Being in Chicago with such of a unique name isn’t easy. People makes jokes about my name all the time but I still take pride in being the only Lavaunte Barnes I know.
My City
I live in a city that is based off and known for gun violence. Gun violence in Chicago is a very touchy topic in Chicago. I have witnessed gun violence multiple times growing up but I wouldn’t trade those experiences for the world, they made me who I am today. If it weren’t for those experiences I would’t be the alert person I am. You have to be alert in Chicago anyways. I have a uncle that got shot in the head at 14 years old and now he is in a coma. He was not gang affiliated or anything he was just simply going to the a snowball stand on the wrong street at the wrong time.
My uncle being a coma affects my mental health so much. I always feel like a piece of me missing. We were somewhat close because of our age difference (we are four years apart) although he was my uncle we grew up like siblings. We were attached at the hip, if you seen me you seen him and if you seen him you seen me. Transitioning from seeing up and active to him laying in a bed with machines hooked to him was a heartbreaking process. He is the reason I am me. His situation made me stronger as a person. I went through a really bad depression that i got myself out of with no help.. just me and music. Something like that make you look at life different and I did. I do everything I do because I know he can’t.
About Me, Lavaunte
I am also struggling with my school life. Going to a low budget school is not the easiest. I look on social media and I see a lot of other schools doing things I wish my school could. My school lacks spirit we do not even have a mascot. Nobody comes to our basketball games, all our sports teams go on a losing streak besides the girls volleyball team, and our pep rallies be boring. Besides all that I do have things I love about my school. I have my friends, art, my girls mentoring group, and some of my teachers. I love my school do not get me wrong but there is a lot of things that need work there.
The three keys to my heart is my name, music, and art. music and art so much has my heart . I have always felt like it was me, music, and art against the world. After going through my depression me and my music grew a even tighter bond it’s unbreakable to be precise. Art calms me on so many level i love very type of art from painting, sculpture, fashion design, and decor.
