I’m not even sure if there are going to be Brooklyn Nine-Nine spoilers, but I’m so accustomed to typing something in italics at the beginning of these that I wanted to at least say hi to all of you before I start the blog.
Ah yes. The final Inspiration blog. It’s been a fun, reflective journey that I’ve wanted to do for some time. Three of the characters were in the plan to write about for about a year, Petra and Emily entering a couple of months ago. I wanted to write six, only because I like even numbers (oh sue me) so I was trying to figure out someone else I drew a lot of inspiration from. So naturally, I took to my Instagram and like a message from above, a post from Stephanie Beatriz graced my feed.
(*Doug Judy voice* Rosa Rosa Rooooosaaaa, oh yeah, beautiful Rooooosaaaaa)
Yes, I’m talking about Rosa Diaz, the true badass of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
I relate a lot to Amy (painfully so…) and I quote Gina on the regular, but every time I watch Rosa do almost anything, I find myself wishing I could be more like her. Rosa is who she is, and she doesn’t apologize for it. She takes command of any room she enters and even goes as far as to slightly terrify everyone around her. You take one look at her and you know she’s tough. You take one look at me and wonder what grade I’m in. I want to be Rosa.
I tend to be a bit of an open book to anyone and everyone. No, not every person gets to hear my entire life story (except for what I write about, which is honestly almost everything) but once I’m comfortable with someone, I pretty much lose my filter. Nobody knows anything about Rosa, to the point where she lets the squad come to her apartment to hide one night and the only reason she does so is because she was already planning on moving so no one would figure out where she lived. When she’s pressed about her past, she uses her typical methods to stop the conversation. I’m not saying I want to be that closed off, but I could probably learn to ride that line a little bit better.
Rosa is another one of the bisexual baddies I admire so much on modern TV. She’s even portrayed by a bisexual actress Stephanie Beatriz, whom I also admire. I touched on this a bit in my blog about Petra, but still at the age of 24, my bisexuality is still a part of my identity I struggle with. Watching Rosa try to make sense of it while being able to clearly reference feelings for women when she was younger really hit home for me, as it was something about her she always knew but never really understood or knew how to express.
She also knows how to take care of herself. How many scenes have we seen where she’s just an absolute kick-ass cop? She can stand up for herself both physically and mentally which is amazing in my book. I’d be lying if I said the scenes where I said the scenes I most wished I were Rosa weren’t the ones where she’s doing something absolutely badass, like catching a criminal. She’s just fierce.
So while I’m not season one Boyle or Doug Judy level obsessed with Rosa, she is someone I’d put on the “Who should I be like?” Mood board. Especially when I’m rocking my formal leather jacket, the one without any blood on it.
Signing off for the inspiration blog series! Not sure what’s coming next, but hopefully I can keep up with a mix of light-hearted and deep. Hopefully you all enjoyed reading these as much as I loved writing them.
From the Vanity Desk 