Just like my last blog post, I did not want to leave my more senior colleagues behind. In this letter, I am writing to Lorena 15-20 years into the future. I want to remind her of her hopes and dreams and hoping that she always followed her heart no matter what came her way. This one is for all of you who have been in this game much longer than I have been. Para ti, tan Sabi@/x, I hope this letter doesn’t find you too late. I hope that you are living the life you always dreamed of and that you chased all those CRAZY dreams of yours. I hope that you never allowed anyone to talk you out of those goals you had, especially not yourself. I also have that voice in my head that has been my hardest critic. I want you to look back on your life personally and professionally and hope that you are so damn proud of what you have created and if you are not, know that this is the precise moment to change anything you are not happy with. You have the power to change at any moment, all you need is the willpower to do so. I hope that you lived up to all the commitments you made. I hope you are out there serving your Latinx community as you promised. I hope you are doing it in all those exciting ways you told me that you would. I hope that your career has been reflective of that as well as your work beyond your day to day job. I hope that you have enjoyed every single moment of this experience even when it got hard; and if you haven’t I think it is time you reassess. Life is too short to be living under the dominion of something that does not light the fire in you. You may not be 20 or 30 anymore, but you sure as hell still have time to shift into a career that fills you with joy! I hope you are out there still helping those young Latinx scholars that seek your guidance and simply want to hear your story to inspire them to press on! I remembered how much you enjoyed that as a young early career scholar and hope you still get so much joy from that experience. I know the young scholars appreciate that commitment you make to them and simply the time and attention you give them. It means more than you can even imagine. I also hope that you enjoyed your life beyond the life of a scholar. I hope you had those babies and bought that house with your husband that you always dreamed of. I remember your vivid dreams about the exact single family home you wanted and the 3 children you wanted to raise there with your sweet husband. I hope this will always be present in your heart as much as the career you love so much. I also hope you kept that promise to always put your marriage and family first because at the end of the day, these were the foundation for all your professional success. You know that without these nothing else really had meaning for you. I hope you always made time and made them a priority when your husband or children needed you because time flies and you do not want to miss out on a small moment that you may regret. And if you already made the mistake of letting your career take priority, come back to reality, come back to your younger self who knew that you can be a whole successful human even with the strong presence of your family. I hope that you are out there being the best human you could ever be. I hope you have led your career and family life with compassion, care, and kindness. You always said that if we were just kind to each other how different the world could be. I hope that you stayed true to that and that you have never allowed your own insecurities or the need to succeed cause you to walk all over those around you. You know that is never okay. I hope that you have always been this type of human because I know if you have that you have been blessed in more than a million ways. I hope that you have never let anyone use your Latinx identity against you, but instead empower you and make a presence at any table you have sat at. Since I could remember, you always talked about how you used your Latinx identity as a weapon of empowerment and anytime anyone would try to tell you otherwise you would switch the script and you would get even the hardest of critics to see you as an asset to their teams or projects. I hope this is the mentality you kept on and that you also never forgot the rest of the Latinx community once you were in those positions of power that you hold. You vowed to never forget where you came from and that you would never make any other Latinx individual less than because you never wanted any younger Latinx scholars to have to endure some of the experiences that you went through. I hope that you have used those positions of power you dreamed of landing to make policy and programmatic changes to how this country views Latinx communities. I hope you pushed the tables to turn even though it has probably been one of the most challenging things in your life, but I can probably guarantee you that you are going to tell me that it has been the most REWARDING and EXCITING part of your career. I hope you have built a community, a family, around you that is not only inspired by all the amazing things you do professionally and personally, but also inspires you to keep living up to be the best version of yourself. You alway said it yourself: the relationships and connections you share with your loved one are the things that give your life meaning. I hope you stayed close to those that lifted you up and always cheered you on. And steered away from those that were holding you back even if it was not on purpose. You quickly learned in your young age that it is critical to surround yourself with people who push you to be a better version of yourself and if not it was time to move on so that you could keep growing and live your life’s purpose. I hope you always loved and gave unconditionally, especially to those souls that you in your heart know needed it the most. Finally, I hope you never created any limits for yourself. I hope you saw how limitless we all are and all we need is some love and hope to make the impossible possible. You saw it yourself at the end of your grad school journey, when the world seemed like it was crumbling you were actually just walking toward the beginning of this amazing journey you have created for yourself. That was all you mamacita, all you! I hope you kept that mentality that everything happens for you and not against you. I am sure this mindset has saved you so many times in all your personal and professional endeavors. And no matter where you find yourself now, I just want you to know how proud of you I am. I am proud of that poders@/x, amazing, imparable womxn you have become. I always knew you would go out there and make this world a better place and I am glad to be a part of it. I love you sabi@/x, keep shining your light in this world. We need you. En poder, Tu (you) en 15-20 years Comments are closed.
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AuthorDr. Lorena Aceves unapologetically telling you the real deal about being brown in an academic world, but deciding she is going to be her authentic self and make her wildest dreams come true en esta vida! Archives
November 2022
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