My Mother's Experience of Overcoming Adversity

I am writing to you about what I have reflected on and learnt about from my mother’s experience of adversity and discrimination. My mother’s experience was based on racism and sexism in the workforce. My mother had just completed University and was given a graduate recruitment position at a Japanese bank called Fuji. She very quickly realised that she was the only non- Japanese employee at this Bank. She was always the first target to do personal errands for her male bosses instead of their assistances completing these tasks. My mother felt that her opinion was not heard, she believed she was resented and not acknowledged by her co-workers. This was her first taste of discrimination that she personally experienced based on her different appearance, heritage and identity.

One of the main takeaways that I received from my mother’s podcast is to trust your gut intuition. Gut intuition is your immediate understanding of something; there’s no need to think it over or get another opinion—you just ‘know’. Your intuition arises as a sense inside your body that solely you expertise. Because the sensation is thus personal, no one else can weigh in to tell you if you’re in touch with your gut instinct or not.

You alone have to make the call. Because of this, trusting your intuition is the ultimate act of trusting yourself. There are no real strategies with trusting your gut intuition you just have to realise that it is there.

From hearing about my mother’s past, I have learnt that hard work and good results in school can’t always help you. My mother applied herself and worked very hard throughout school. Once she came to Fuji, she realised that all her hard work couldn’t have protected her in this toxic working environment. My parents have always motivated my siblings and I to work hard in all areas of life especially school. My mum has in ways contradicted herself and her values to teach me how hard work and good grades can’t prepare you for the real world. In order to be able to face adversity you need to know your self-worth. Over this past year I have learnt more about myself and realise my self-worth. Strategies to help other people find their self-worth are to surround yourself with the right people. People who look out for your best interests and who you can trust. Another strategy is getting to know yourself at a deeper and more profound level. The main way to build up someone’s self-worth is through learning about themselves.

My last main takeaway from my mother’s podcast which leads on with building someone’s self-worth is to not to let anyone make you feel less of yourself. We are all special and different in our own way which makes everyone unique. With these being acknowledged, Racism and discrimination is a prevalent stereo type brought up commonly in our society. In order to not let people, get to you, you have to once again surround yourself with the right people and block out and negative people in your life. This is the main way to prevent this feeling of not being good enough in order to boost and build on your self-worth. Some folks square measure continually creating changes to their lives. Others, on the opposite hand, are content with their lot and resist the need to change.

From my mother’s podcast I personally believe that change is a good thing because it makes our lives more interesting and offers opportunities for growth. A change can be an opportunity to learn. It throws recent challenges that take a look at a person’s ability to adapt and grow. It can also make our lives more interesting. When folks attempt new things, they knowledge and skills improve. Trying new things will facilitate them overcome their inhibitions and hidden fears.

I have learnt that we need to be willing to accept the challenge and learn a new skill that change provides us with. Especially, when you are in a situation where you fell less than others, you need to change your surrounding because everyone deserves to be happy.

Overcoming adversity is a hard but empowering experience to overcome. The adversity that my mother faced is a common experience for many people across the world. Her first taste of the ‘real world’ was completely different from how she though it would have been. She exclaimed throughout the podcast that no matter how hard she worked, and her good grades could not have changed the circumstance. The discrimination that my mother faced for being a woman and not being Japanese taught me to trust your gut intuition. The most important life lesson I gained for this assignment and podcast was that change is good and that change is supposed to be challenging.