Welcome 2018! A new year, a new chapter, new experiences and new losses, but the belief and the excitement of new gains! It’s really all in how we want to see it. What to write, what to write? I hate having writer’s block because the stress of contemplating what I need to write next to make an impact is sometimes overwhelming. And notjust to make an impact on my readers, but on myself, more importantly, is one of the many challenging but exciting parts of my personal growth. AWiB has allowed me to test myself as a writer and has given me the platform to expose myself through writing and find myself in the process. Ah, AWiB! So in the spirit of AWiB’s theme of the year, “Visibility”, enjoy readers!
The dictionary defines visibility as “the degree to which something has attracted general attention; prominence” and continuing on, prominence is defined as “the fact or condition of standing out from something by physically projecting or being particularly noticeable”.
Have you ever given it any thought as to what you, in your own community, attract? What does your character say about you and when it does attract, just what are its intentions? I consider my character it, because I’m still on the path of finding her. And that’s when it hit me, when I was struggling to get inspired about visibility for my first blog of the year. Just how visible am I? How do I come off to others? And I don’t mean to say that you should worry about what others think about you, but I mean what does your character say about you?
Take stand-up comedians for example, they are the most visible individuals I can think of. Personally, I love comedy and I have the highest respect for stand-up comedians because I believe they are the true humanitarians of our generation. It takes a special quality of confidence and humility to be able to stand up infront of a crowd of peopleone has never met beforeand deliver real life experiences laced with jokes. The courage it takes to exposeopinions on different matters of life without knowing how the audience will take it, is inspiring to me. I’d like to believe that the real obstacle of a comedian is just that; how visible can I be? When am I pushing the audience’s boundaries? And when am I pushing my own? Will they find it as funny as I did? And, if not all, but just one person in the crowd gets me, will that be enough, for my personal satisfaction?
When I allow myself to daydream, as I rest sometimes, I think of how hard it would be if I were living the life of anyone of my favorite comedians. Because you have to think of how a comedian gets her or his material for a show. They are observers and listeners. I think they are the worlds’ silent spectators of life at large. They try to find the humor in everything, even in pain and struggle. And that’s the beauty of comedians. Born into this world with a talent to story-tellwith the ultimate aim to make people laugh about life.
To be visible, is to be one with yourself; authentically confident about you and courageous enough to show that you for all others to see. Thanks to our president Meti and all the board members, AWiB is now on a new journey to show herself to world. AWiB is ready to be truly visible to all those open to see her. I am extremely humbled to be part of AWiB’s 2018 journey to visibility, because in the struggle to show her off, I know I will learn to show myself off as well. That’s AWiB for you; it has never been about AWiB, it has always been about you. If you want to improve your leadership skills as a working female in this community, believe me, AWiB is the place for you. Being visible to me is to be noticeable to others with your true intentions. What do you want for yourself? What do you want to offer and contribute to your community; to the world? I think when you know, you know, and you know when its time to be visible; because you’re confident enough to stop hiding anymore.
We have to step out of our shells and expose ourselves to life. We all have talents, experiences and skills, but most of all, we all have dreams. And the funny thing about dreams is that they actually come true! They were meant to; the universe created them not just to be “visualized” but “realized”. Not without work though, oh there’s a whole lot of work involved in the realization of a dream but the most important element of it all is that nothing begins without the vision. Another word to consider; vision: “the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom”. Isn’t that a beautiful description? You get to plan with imagination or with wisdom; it’s all one in the same. This year, AWiB has planned a series of trainings, seminars, and round-table-discussions all geared towards helping us find our passions, and showing it off to the public. Who’s with me? AWiBers and all?Lets take a risk together; lets show people who we are. Individually, unique! Let’s get noticed!
