Girl Empowerment Makes for Beautiful Lives

Sooo...it's been awhile. This month I am participating in a day program that is dedicated to empowering girls.

Empowering girls is important in today’s society. Especially in developing countries, there are many programs that are trying to teach girls how to make healthy choices so that they can lead healthy and happy lives. Girl Empowerment isn’t something that is needed in just those countries, but it is desperately needed in our community as well. Though we live in a day where women are supposedly equal to men, just by turning on the television, you’ll see that our media and general society is really saying otherwise. Media objectifies women and repeatedly reinforces the idea that a female must be sexually appealing to a man. Even on TV shows where a woman is in a powerful career, they are still being objectified in steamy scenes. Women are as capable as men but sadly, when a 16-year old pop-star is dancing on a pole, or a high school girl is in sexy lingerie in bed with her boyfriend on a TV show, our girls are shown from a young age, that THAT is what society wants them to be.

We, as a society, should be teaching young girls that we need to have love for ourselves. We need to help nurture self-esteem and help young girls feel confident about using what is on the inside of them to make the best of their lives. If girls could use their inner strength and make informed decisions, learn how to be independent financially and emotionally, and realize that they have it in them to take care of themselves and pursue their passions, IMAGINE how much better off our society as a whole would be. If girls have healthy relationships with THEMSELVES and love for themselves, then they can be capable of having a healthy and quality relationship with other people from friends, families, to love interests. That would make the world a more beautiful place.

Providing accessible resources and knowledge to girls will make a difference. The program I am assisting with is put on by Promising Connections. The Girl Empowerment Day Program in July is connecting girls with powerful mentors who are successful women, and providing them with knowledge about how to live healthy and happy lives. I’m so thankful that because I felt empowered to make a choice to attend a workshop that could help me, I met Tracy(Exec. director of Promising Connections, LLC) there. Because I met her, I have the blessing to be involved with her amazing program to help empower girls.

Tell Somebody

Join GLAMOUR’S Tell Somebody campaign. Change your status to: Relationship violence kills 4 women a DAY in the US. If you or someone you know is being abused, Tell Somebody. Make sure someone is always listening by texting TELLNOW to 85944. Your $10 donation will help keep the National Domestic Violence Hotline open

Read more at:
http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/smitten/2011/05/relationship-violence-kills-fo.html#ixzz1LQ1yquJz

Not the final straw

My mom tells me this often

Remember, whatever you choose to do next, is just the next step...you don't have to do it for the rest of your life.

I need to keep reminding myself of this. I met with my old internship supervisor today just to TALK to someone and she also said that. Even though I don't think I should lose sight of what I would like to do, that doesn't mean I should rule out other opportunities that may come my way if they will give me good experience and help me work towards the end goal. (I don't even know what the end goal is yet ahaha so even more of a reason to test out different things)

It's only been 4 weeks since I get back, and I'm just feeling like the transition period between Korea and coming home is coming to an end. I'm glad I didn't make any sudden decisions and now it's time to think clearly about what I want, what I don't want, what's the smartest/best decision for me at this time, etc. And remember - the next step is only the next step. And I'm still only 22...

The Job Search Continues

Let's say...you have a job where you work 18 hours a week, able to coordinate the material you are teaching, you have basically 4 months of PAID vacation because of the breaks between university semesters, and have an apartment that is paid for. Why would you want to leave that position, especially when you aren't positive about what you want to pursue next?

People have asked me that, why did I leave that in Korea to come back to the struggling U.S. economy?

Although it scares me to wonder how long it will take me to secure a job here, I don't regret my decision to come back. What I am certain of, is that it is not my long-term dream to stay in Korea as an English teacher. Therefore, even though the future is cloudy, why WOULD I stay there? I am so young, and there are a lot of opportunities and paths that I could take. If I am certain I do NOT want to stay on one path, despite the perks, why would I waste my time doing that. The more time I spend in that position, the time I'm losing to be proactive on my search to find what is right for me.

Practically every day I have been applying to jobs. I know that if I stay persistent with a positive attitude, I'll find something. whew...

Who or What Inspires you?

The people who truly inspire me the most are the people who have spent their lives doing what they love to do, and are able to look back on their life and say “if I died today, I would be happy with the way I lived my life.” A perfect example of this kind of person is one of my coworkers at the university. He is a South African older man who has fallen down mountains, scuba-dived in places all over the world, served in the military in Angola, worked on conservation projects, raised two beautiful children, and has been a teacher his entire professional career. Our endless conversations always bring a story of his to the surface and I listen in awe. Before I came to Korea, I figured I would spend a year working, then return to the U.S. and work a “safe” office job in Human Resources, working my way up from a stuffy office or corner cubical behind a desk. However, my experiences from this year and getting to know people like my coworker has inspired me to uncover my passions and things that excite me about life and to follow that path. I am truly grateful for knowing a person like him and I think he influenced my life and time in Korea more than he will ever know.

I actually wrote the above a little bit before I had left Korea...
As I'm job searching, I cannot forget this and must remind myself to continuously push myself in the direction I want to go. A great friend of mine shared this wonderful quote with me today "Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”-Andre Gide

Learning how to be at home

My last post left off saying that it has been a process being home. What I mean by that is that it's been hard figuring out how I fit back into life here...the lifestyle, and friends' lifestyles, etc...

I'm wondering if other young people who return from being abroad feel the same way. I feel like over the past year I have outgrown this place, and the things that people around me are interested in. I'm scarred from my first night out which was going out downtown...I have not been back DT since and have no desire to. 2 out of the 3 times I have gone "out" have been a major disappointment. And, honestly- it isn't because of the fact this is Minnesota, it has been because of the people.

A friend of mine told me not to spend too much time worrying about how I, after a year of being gone and a year of growing, fits back into MN life. I should let my surroundings adapt to me, not the other way around.

I've begun applying for jobs outside of Minnesota, primarily in Chicago. As a young adult back from being abroad, I feel like there is no more room for me to grow in Minnesota for now. There is nothing tying me down, and this place has nothing to offer me at the moment. I currently feel like I'm back pedaling being here...or at best, at a stand still. Job searching can be tough, but you just have to stay persistent. I'm determined to continue growing and living my life.

Welcome home

It's been awhile since my last post and I usually post on my tumblr but I think I'm going to start writing here instead.

February 23, 2010 I arrived back in South Korea to go to work, and over a year later, February 28, 2011 I returned to the states. A year went by incredibly fast and sometimes it seems like it was all just a dream.

I was coming back over excited to see my friends and family and to be surrounded by America again. Friends of mine who have gone abroad for a long time, a year or more, and gone back warned me that reverse culture shock may sneak up on me just because we don't expect to feel any shock since it is "home." Sound advice I thought, and I arrived back in America with no expectations on how life would now be.

It was odd...for the first couple of days I honestly would look around self consciously half expecting people to stare at me because I was a Korean looking person speaking English, but of course, no one noticed. I was appalled that I would have to pay $3.00 for a bottle of water at the SEATAC airport...and had to let my eyes adjust to the number of overweight people and people who didn't care what they looked like and walked around with their ass crack hanging out of their dirty sweatpants. Welcome home!

As of today, it has been three weeks since I've been back and I can honestly say that it has been a process...