Email 2
👂 On Being Seen and HEARD
Heyy 👋
Hope you are well. :)
Last week, I had talked about starting and stopping projects as a multi-passionate human.
This week, on Week 2 of this series, I bring to you the concept of being seen and heard.
One story that I love telling (when I'm asked to) is about that time I joined a beauty pageant in my city.
It's funny how people always remember you as the one who did that when they just saw you doing it. They didn't necessarily hear what I had to say, or that's what I thought.
My platform during that contest was all about education for Filipino children. My siblings who are younger than me were only in high school in a public school then.
Being the eldest, I was privileged enough to have gone to a private school as my aunt helped pay for my tuition and books until I graduated BS Nursing. I never had the experience of going to a public school and would never know the difference.
But I could feel the difference.
I could see the difference in my own siblings in terms of economic capabilities between public and private schools.
In my siblings' school, some classrooms did not have a solid floor. Some classrooms just had chairs a teacher's table and chair, but no cemented floor. It was direct towards the ground or the earth, if that makes sense (my English is failing me tonight, lol).
And that simple observation moved my heart.
Back to the beauty pageant, when I got into the Top 5 and was asked about what I would do as my platform if I won, I had answered to help the public school where my siblings went and advocated for the children there to have a better physical classroom situation. I came up 3rd runner up because I didn't really address the main question, which was somewhat related to how I would promote the city's tourism, but whatever.
I tell this story because I wonder how many saw but did not hear what the contestants were saying. And I wonder the same for beauty pageants and audiences worldwide.
It's so easy to judge people by the way we see them. It's harder to listen to their story especially when we're so bombarded with advertisements everywhere. It becomes even harder to distinguish the truth from the lies.
What remains is that human story behind the visual things we see but don't hear. When we unmute people from our lives, when we listen, we become more aware of how less alone we really are.
There is a kind of truth in human stories that help and heal us. And it's the most beautiful thing ever about humanity.
It teaches us empathy, compassion, and connection.
So the next time you ever doubt if people are even listening before putting yourself and your work out there, know that your story matters. Your experience is your story. You are creating your story everyday and the people who are meant to listen to you will. And you will have helped and healed others with what you have to say too.
Love,
Elaine 💘
Hope you are well. :)
Last week, I had talked about starting and stopping projects as a multi-passionate human.
This week, on Week 2 of this series, I bring to you the concept of being seen and heard.
One story that I love telling (when I'm asked to) is about that time I joined a beauty pageant in my city.
It's funny how people always remember you as the one who did that when they just saw you doing it. They didn't necessarily hear what I had to say, or that's what I thought.
My platform during that contest was all about education for Filipino children. My siblings who are younger than me were only in high school in a public school then.
Being the eldest, I was privileged enough to have gone to a private school as my aunt helped pay for my tuition and books until I graduated BS Nursing. I never had the experience of going to a public school and would never know the difference.
But I could feel the difference.
I could see the difference in my own siblings in terms of economic capabilities between public and private schools.
In my siblings' school, some classrooms did not have a solid floor. Some classrooms just had chairs a teacher's table and chair, but no cemented floor. It was direct towards the ground or the earth, if that makes sense (my English is failing me tonight, lol).
And that simple observation moved my heart.
Back to the beauty pageant, when I got into the Top 5 and was asked about what I would do as my platform if I won, I had answered to help the public school where my siblings went and advocated for the children there to have a better physical classroom situation. I came up 3rd runner up because I didn't really address the main question, which was somewhat related to how I would promote the city's tourism, but whatever.
I tell this story because I wonder how many saw but did not hear what the contestants were saying. And I wonder the same for beauty pageants and audiences worldwide.
It's so easy to judge people by the way we see them. It's harder to listen to their story especially when we're so bombarded with advertisements everywhere. It becomes even harder to distinguish the truth from the lies.
What remains is that human story behind the visual things we see but don't hear. When we unmute people from our lives, when we listen, we become more aware of how less alone we really are.
There is a kind of truth in human stories that help and heal us. And it's the most beautiful thing ever about humanity.
It teaches us empathy, compassion, and connection.
So the next time you ever doubt if people are even listening before putting yourself and your work out there, know that your story matters. Your experience is your story. You are creating your story everyday and the people who are meant to listen to you will. And you will have helped and healed others with what you have to say too.
Love,
Elaine 💘