LiViNG on the FLipSiDe: Empowering Myself (and Getting Sweaty too)

I needed to buy new earrings. I lost the "LO" to my Love earrings, you know the ones I've been wearing for well over a year -- right ear reads "LO" and the left ear reads "VE".

Anyways, I had asked the sales lady at the jewelry shop that I wanted a similar pair of earrings, something that is different. She recommended silver unicorn earrings.

Korean men sometimes refer to white woman as being unicorns.

I've been called a unicorn numerous times, it's a derogatory term, so to be recommended unicorn earrings.... wow.

I bought them.

I wear a silver unicorn earring in my left ear and a silver heart in my right.

Unicorns are a fantasy animals and many Korean men fantizie as to what it'd be like to be with a foreign woman, a white woman. They watch too many Hollywood movies, which doesn't help, and so western woman are portrayed as being much more sexually active and "easy"-going as Korean women.

Needless to say, the slur "unicorn" is very derogatory. I remember the first time someone ever called me that. It was the reason why I suddenly dyed my hair black and kept it black for so long. I figured my small eyes and black hair would confuse many as to what my background was and thus I wouldn't be called a unicorn anymore. I may have confused some but the name calling continued.

I shared this on my Instagram and noted that sometimes the things that were meant to break you down are what you can use to build yourself up. I know I comment about the various negative things that happened to me in Korea but there is a lot of positive though. I feel like I've benefited more from the negative. It's made me so much stronger than I ever imagined. And that's why I bought the unicorn earrings, as a reminder that I am so much stronger than anything anyone can throw at me.

I'm embracing the negative by turning it into something positive.
It wasn't a waste of time and energy.

It was a lesson learned, a character building activity.