As the story has it, one day I headed to the opposite side of the globe – the Flipside. I arrived in Korea February 16th, 2005 and thought I’d do a year, then leave. I was wrong. I stayed, launched my first company, Flipside Fitness, and then opened Korea's largest boxing club, Hulk's Boxing (now called Hulk's Club).

After 11.5yrs in Korea, I then picked up one day and returned to Toronto, Canada. But then I left again.

Now I live in the Philippines where I am the CEO and head coach of Empowered Clubhouse, the Philippines' first and only boxing clubhouse exclusively just for women. I also am the founder of the Lil' Sistas Project, CEO and designer of Slay Gear and Baa Baa Black Sheep .Ph.

Saturday, September 22, 2018

Am I Ready to Do This?... Saturday, September 22

Next Thursday I'm giving a speech at a human trafficking event.  I was asked to represent Empowered, my business, and to talk about my own personal struggles and journey towards empowerment.  I accept the request without hesitation but tonight, upon sitting down to think of my talk overview, I started to second guess whether or not this is even a good idea.

Unlike the other speakers who are talking about past events or speaking on behalf of organizations that deal with such issues, like child pornography for example, what I'm speaking about happened to me and hasn't yet been resolved or concluded.  There's definitely a level of insecurity and uneasiness that comes with living close to Korea, for sure.  And every once in a while someone from Korea threatens to come to the Philippines "to talk to me".  The most recent occurrence was just over a week and a half ago.  

My preference for this talk would be that it wouldn't be recorded by anyone and the details of what I reveal posted online.  I'm nervous about this speech, I'm not going to lie, but a part of me thinks sharing it with others will help me heal a bit more from it.  A part of me thinks I'm still as much in denial about it as those in Korea who saw the signs and knew a bit of what was going on.  Then there's a part of me that wants to share everything, put it out into the open and say "hey, if you didn't want me to speak bad about you than you shouldn't have done bad to me", but I know I'm partly to blame for what down in Korea for the very fact that I didn't leave sooner.  

I don't know. 

I don't know exactly what I'll be talking about but I know it will change how others view me.

No comments: