Thank you Talent Corporation Malaysia Berhad (TalentCorp), Project Girls 4 Girls and Project Girls 4 Girls Malaysia for hosting the wonderful events during the Women's History Month!
Truly felt showered with #love in Cohort 9 of #WIN x #G4G modules, #WomenCareerConvention and the events that made us feel confident, loved, and respected being the true us.
Thank you, dear Komathy K. for mentoring Team Allium and having us to talk about the true vulnerabilities in the industry. Had a great time with Syasha Yusoff, Rosini Murugesh, Farah Aulia, and Ranessa Nambiar.
Thanks, Dr Christina S S Ooi for the 1-to-1 deep talk on how anyone could strive to be who they have always wanted to be, focusing on the things we felt are the most important to us while making bold decisions.
A big thanks to Sir Thomas Mathew who sees all female leaders eye-to-eye as a male leader. Then, providing equal opportunities for them to actually take action in the industry.
I'm also inspired by Mahuran Saro Sariki and Natasha for the powerful advocacy in inclusivity and equal rights. Organising the activities and showing support towards the community had been so important for us to grow together.
Surely also inspired by Izzana Salleh a.k.a. Izzy who connects Malaysia's tribes to the world with such wonderful initiatives in #G4G just inspires me to think about community building in different ways. Ways in which we could shine the spotlight on every unique person who deserves recognition, even before we feel fully prepared, because we will surely shine as long as we believe in ourselves and make progress naturally.
I laughed with the Queens when Siew-Yong Bong was talking because we found it to be a fun and engaging way of perceiving information. Whether it's the sharing or the positive affirmations while stretching out.
Inspired by our guest speakers as well, truly love the stories. Madiha Fuad's stories as a founder of PlusVibes®️ just made me feel so relatable to go through the obstacles on the journey of entrepreneurship. Thanks, Dato’ Dr. Munirah Looi emphasising on the clarity on purposes. In our last speaker session, I was blown away by Sharm Ravindran's understanding of how female leaders can be rational and analytical without seeing it as abnormal whenever we feel like doing so.
Also, Sarah Wong for the morning motivation for making an impact, Nesa Albeper deRozario for the enthusiastic entrepreneurial mindset, Diyana Mohd Amin's advocacy for sustainability and the other lovely mentors.
The list goes on and on but I barely had enough time to connect with everyone, so please reach out to me on LinkedIn if you feel like we could talk about something related to entrepreneurship, leadership or lovely stories of our growth.
As much as I love and enjoy being part of #WINxG4G2024 #GirlsWhoLead, I also wrote this blog you're reading here where you could scroll all the way down below to see my honest thoughts on how our future generations could make a difference.
On how it's #not just about #FemaleLeadership although it has been #all about #female #leadership during this month.
How we could come together as a #collective to respect, love, and understand each other, seeing all our differences as unique traits and abilities with love.
Since you're still here, let us get into this tiny little moment during the Women Career Convention.
As I mentioned on LinkedIn, 'Met Hannah Kalawati RAMSAMY in the convention encouraging her young daughter to make positive influences was so inspiring too!'
I was there watching how she encouraged her primary school daughter to talk, mingle around, and just be brave. It's also remarkable to hear her say that there are no differences among many of us, which I agree with. I walked up to her and said that she's such a wonderful leader and mother.
Back when my grandmother told me about certain siblings having educational opportunities but not her during her generation, I didn't take it seriously as I didn't realise the fact that her entire surroundings were against her back then. She was so forgiving, loving, and hardworking that even though she had to play the unfair game of putting in extra time, effort, and energy for all the things she would like to have, she simply never complained but just raised the younger siblings, children, and grandchildren like me with wisdom, kindness, and inclusivity so that the generations yet to come would not be experiencing the pain that she had to go through. I simply listened to her stories of resilience, of rising above adversity, and seeing others as equals despite the challenges. She took scraps of torn pages to self-learn when the environment wasn't conducive to pursuing what she loved. I truly wish that I could hug her and tell her how much the world has changed beautifully in my generation. I really do. I'm just so grateful for all that I have and all the opportunities that I'm given to pursue what I dream of being in the world.
I knew that I could weather the toughest storms myself. But during the times when I finally receive the graduation scroll, trophies, and glory, I truly hope that I could share all this joy with her. To let her know that it's worth it after all. All that she's ever done is worth it.
In the picture I showed you, she was with the Adenium obesum, a.k.a. 'Prosperous Flower', if directly translated from the old ways of her calling it 富贵花 (Fù Guì Huā). I actually didn't understand why they named such a 'desert flower' that way, until I think that it's a miracle for flowers to bloom in the desert, a hope for our lives, maybe? We still have these flowers at my parent's home today and I'll touch them to think of her spirit still being by my side at times. Some people might be gone on Earth at this point in time, but they stay in our hearts forever.
With that, I do not hope that it's just about women, although it's all about women.
Every human being, coming together as a collective of the same species, Homo sapiens, could be seeing each other as equals while hoping for the best for each other had been something that I hope for. When we see that some people have different backgrounds, different personality traits, or different biological features, the first thing we did in the past throughout human history was to wipe them off because we had this fear inside of us which is ridiculously sad, pathetic, and silly. However, we did that out of fear to protect ourselves. Biases formed so that we could survive.
So, as long as we focus on the dissimilarities and tell reasons of not having the biases, the more the others would think that it's just another different being telling things to harm us, subconsciously or unconsciously affecting us to put a barrier up to each other even before we try to understand each other. By eliminating the fear, we could introduce in the dissimilar traits as the unique abilities or features that we have, while we focus on the loving experiences that we could have together. We could look at many of the other species in the other animals, insects, or living things and explore the unity in them to be implemented in human beings as well. While this thought is weird, I felt like sharing it, just in case if anyone would love it.
When a younger female leader came up to me and said 'I felt represented,' I felt proud and sad at the same time because I hope that we could look at anyone and anyone at all to feel represented in the ways that we know we're just different versions of each other living, striving, and experiencing lives in many unique ways.
Even age could be a made-up restriction of the mind because experiences are great and powerful but also could be restricting us from being curious and exploring the world at times. So, I just feel the need of sharing that we could view our traits to understand the bright sides and shadow sides without feeling ashamed of being ourselves while understanding that another one with different ways of handling things, strengths and weaknesses would also deserve the same amount of love, respect, and kindness.
While I could talk extensively about the importance of liberal feminism (while also respecting other feminist perspectives, yet advocating for a balanced approach), I do not agree with extreme positions in any ideology but rather seek a middle ground. I hope that female leaders do not unconsciously sabotage themselves which I knew many did that by nature. As someone involved in projects within the technology and science industry, I sincerely hope that we can work towards reducing stereotypes and avoiding unnecessary labels. A huge thanks to all the lovely people on identifying these factors and solving the problems that may have contributed to the relatively low percentage (~30%) of females in STEM industries, among other reasons. I hope that we could 'implant' in the brain the idea that we are no different from what a human could achieve, only possessing different traits, strengths, and weaknesses that define us, allowing us to do things that are uniquely ours. And, I don't mean just females. I mean, every single living soul who is trying to get through a certain stage in an environment that may not be in your favour with many unfair advantages for now and for the past only. We believe in creating a society we love together, so the future would be totally different for us. Just trust the progress. It's difficult, but we have to trust us.
With that, I'll continue spreading the message of believing in the power of love to all. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, for those who read it through until here. You're truly amazing.
A confession of her becoming me.
A creation of an art of the influential female leaders I love on #womensday2024.
ft. Taylor Swift, Anna Wintour, my Mum and a lot more on the list.
or Instagram reel @cheeartsbooks,
or YouTube short @cheeartsbooks.
'we're all the same species as a collective creating history in our civilisation.'
with love,
Cliona
creating toplove.tech
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Cliona Chee
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