About the piece
When Alisha was five years old she had a dream. She was standing high up in a tall building, looking out over a city she did not recognise. She woke up certain of one thing: she was not going to spend her life in London.
In 2007, with a backpack and a one-way feeling she kept quietly to herself, she got on a plane to Australia. People told her it was brave. It did not feel brave. For the first time in her life, she was doing something entirely and only for herself.
"I heard them. And I came anyway."
What followed were nine months of falling in love with a country, twelve frantic weeks of job applications in Sydney, and then — four days before her visa expired — three job offers and a decision that changed everything.
But arriving in a place is not the same as belonging to it. Over the years that followed, Alisha found herself quietly bending to fit corporate spaces where she was often the only Black woman in the room. The adjustments were small and unconscious at first. The hair. The suits. The opinions kept carefully offline. Until one day something cracked.
I Came Anyway is a story about the moment you realise the cage you have been living in was never locked. It is about the slow, courageous work of fitting out instead of fitting in, and what becomes possible when you finally stop asking for permission to take up space.
