The top being on the outside for me have been: being fat (I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t aware this was an issue to be corrected, even as a child), being an immigrant to the US and feeling like I constantly had to play catch up on everything from language to cultural references, and being brown in a majority white affluent suburb. I’ve recently started noticing how much I work in various contexts to prove that I belong, to work hard (harder than the average) to leave no doubt that I deserve to occupy the space. The other day my spouse was blowing steam off about a young colleague- too confident he said. They don’t know what they don’t know and it can cause issues and they need coaching. And I realized I can’t even imagine what it must be like to go through the world with extra confidence instead of needing to prove myself. I just started laughing. I think about all this now as a mom with young kids. I want them to work hard, but I also want them to see the world as full of possibility and positivity. How we raise them will no doubt impact that, though we can already see their personalities shone through and have a say in their attitudes too. Thanks for sharing, Pooja
Thank you for taking the time to share and engage Ana. I like that you used the word work because it is, even though we don’t always refer to it as such.
The top being on the outside for me have been: being fat (I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t aware this was an issue to be corrected, even as a child), being an immigrant to the US and feeling like I constantly had to play catch up on everything from language to cultural references, and being brown in a majority white affluent suburb. I’ve recently started noticing how much I work in various contexts to prove that I belong, to work hard (harder than the average) to leave no doubt that I deserve to occupy the space. The other day my spouse was blowing steam off about a young colleague- too confident he said. They don’t know what they don’t know and it can cause issues and they need coaching. And I realized I can’t even imagine what it must be like to go through the world with extra confidence instead of needing to prove myself. I just started laughing. I think about all this now as a mom with young kids. I want them to work hard, but I also want them to see the world as full of possibility and positivity. How we raise them will no doubt impact that, though we can already see their personalities shone through and have a say in their attitudes too. Thanks for sharing, Pooja
Thank you for taking the time to share and engage Ana. I like that you used the word work because it is, even though we don’t always refer to it as such.