Taking Back Power... Friday, March 15

There's only so much I can do with my hair, it's already super short, but today I changed it up.

I took it shorter than short.

In a moment of weakness and frustration, I decided enough was enough.  I needed to change up my look.  It's not that I've been wearing my look for some time now but where and when I started to sport this look has been weighing heavily on me.

I first chopped my hair back in Korea, when my biggest sponsor said they wanted me to look edger.  It was his suggestion and while I was a bit hesitant about it at first, I then decided to go with it.  Hey, if I was already sticking out like a sore thumb in a country that was already treating me like I was a sore thumb, then why not just go with it, right? Right.  So that's what I did.  

But I don't live in Korea anymore and the Philippines is most definitely not Korea.  

People don't make me feel like an odd ball here and they most definitely don't make me feel ugly either.  I feel different here and I think I spark some people's curiosity as well as I know I am memorable but it's never been in the negative sense.  That's the different.

Having said that though, I've started a new life here in the Philippines and it's fabulous and it's totally disconnected from my life that I once lived in Korea.  I figured it was only fitting that I change up my look, decide for myself what and how I wanted to look like, and just get rid of the image Korea had pushed and made for me.  

So that's what I did.  

Today I chopped my hair.

The chop came after a business meeting today at the British School of Manila.  I had met with one of the P.E department members to discuss my company, Empowered, bringing in an after school program for their girls.  In the meeting, we also talked about the Lil' Sistas Project and how we could possibly incorporate this into their program.  Sitting there, talking about Empowered and how I once opened Hulk's, I realized that my present is now so much better than my past, Empowered is so much better than Hulk's.  I was once so in love with my club, with Hulk's, but now Empowered is growing bigger and stronger every day and I'm super optimistic with where it is going.  I need to celebrate it's growth more instead of comparing it to Hulk's because now their paths aren't quite the same.  I've held on to Hulk's for so long but now I feel it somewhat hindering me, holding me back from fully embracing Empowered and giving my undivided attention to it.  

Slowly but surely I'm letting go of Hulk's and all that attached me to it.  And today that meant me creating a new image for Empowered with my own personal image, my hair.  There is definitely something liberating about chopping your hair but I can't even begin to explain what it felt like to chop it all off, to get rid of the look that was once my so-called "calling card" that my sponsors back in Korea held the reins to.