“To know a species, look at its fears. To know yourself, look at your fears. Fear in itself is not important, but fear stands there and points you in the direction of things that are important. Don’t be afraid of your fears, they’re not there to scare you; they’re there to let you know that something is worth it.”
I usually don’t accept talks and seminars that require me to give insight about blogging. Not that I look down on these talks (I hold such to high regard) but rather because I personally think I am not an expert. I do not blog full-time and as long as I have been in the industry, I hardly consider myself an expert, which is why I usually pass it up and refer the people who ask me to give a talk to someone more knowledgeable and qualified than I am and I know a number of people who can actually impart more knowledge than I ever can when it comes to the topic of Blogging 101. I find myself not as worthy to give tips when it comes to that. However, when I was asked by the University of the Philippines Adelfe Enu Crea Sorority to give a talk on personality development and women empowerment, my answer was an instant: “YES!” I guess I would like to think I can talk about how to develop one’s self and how to navigate through life and all its challenges than I could about being a blogger. I won’t lie. I am not empowered 100% of the time. Being human, I have my own share of insecurities, flaws and things I would like to add on to the “what I need to work on” pile but I think that acknowledging all that is where the beauty of it all is. I know I am not perfect. I am flawed to so many degrees but I am here and I am trying hard to grow and push through and while life is far from perfect, the fact that I am still willing to go through the motions of day to day existence is something to celebrate.
I do hope I was able to give an inspiring talk. I tried to be as extemporaneous as possible as I wanted to connect to my audience rather than give a lecture on how to develop one’s self. I know there was no clear-cut method and approach to empowering you as that varies from person to person. We all have different experiences and events that would shape us… the best I could do was tell my story and hope that people can pick up on certain points that may be useful to them. My talk outlined my transition from party-girl/college student to fashion designer/ fashion blogger to advocate for education/corporate mogul. It seems I have had so many stages and facets in my life and I gladly breezed through all of them with those who were interested enough to want to learn about me. I also spoke about relationships and friendships and somehow, I was able to realize that from sharing my experiences, I was somehow revealing so much of myself… by the end of my talk, I felt raw… and I loved it. I had a voice and I was finally brave enough to share it to people. In my quest of empowering the young women (and some men) who invited me to give a talk, I ended up empowered myself. What an experience!
Anyway, since I am less of a fashion-affiliated person and more of a corporate woman now, the day I had was beyond busy. I had a couple of meetings and my day started at about 7 a.m. The day went by so fast that I found myself rushing from one appointment to the next and before I knew it, it was time to leave for U.P. I knew this was not something I wanted to miss out on and I am glad I didn’t and I think the way I was able to go through my day was through this amazing shift dress in jacquard from Zara’s Spring/Summer 2015 Collection which made my look appropriate for everything I had to attend to- from meetings, work, the talk and a late dinner meeting that I had to sneak in after my talk. It was, in all aspects of the word, a booked day but I was happy to survive it… and come out stronger in the end. I was afraid of taking on so many challenges and it scared me to have so many responsibilities to deal with but at the end of the day… it was worth it. It’s always worth it.
Jacquard Shift Dress: Zara, Bag: Givenchy Antigona, Python Court Shoes: Zara, Pearls: Mikimoto, Watch: Patek Philippe
Photo by: Celyn
x,J