From Adversity to Finding Passion

[Music]

when i first got invited to speak on the

stage

the first question that actually comes

to mind was what the

heck am i gonna be talking about

but moment changes when the question

that appears becomes

what leads me here today

today i’d like to be sharing with you

about my passion

discovery and what it means to live with

one

and this is a message actually for

everyone

who’s currently battling with an

imposter syndromes

who was once rejected who has felt the

pain

of failure and who’s persistently

battling their fight

my journey for passion starts from when

i was still in my formative years

it was h it was at the age of

self-discovery

of puberty and trials

when i realized that i was actually

perceived as a mediocre

by my teacher my classmates

from often failing tests to having less

than average social skills

and to having only a few friends that

accepted me

at this moment the only thing that comes

to mind

was how can i be different

how can i be accepted and that has

become

a question for me ever since because it

actually dared me to be someone

i had a chance to start over and find

the answer to that question

by actually moving to another school

when i got into high school

not knowing anyone before was certainly

a great advantage for my quest

because it actually allows me to

actually do more trials and errors for

my self-discovery

by going through some trials and joys

and socializing with new

people and even changing my methods and

learning

i learned one important thing

you can always choose to grow if you

allow yourself to

and this is the fundamental mindset that

drives me to believe that whatever

happens

there will always be room for growth

until i was faced with multi

from schools and even universities that

i ever dreamed of was high school

when you think that rejection only gets

better every time or even failing

it is only like you’re being pushed down

from the hills

when you thought that you’re about to

reach the top

and in adversity i thought there are

only two things that i was allowed to do

it is too grief and to give up

turns out i was wrong there are not two

things

there are two options first

it’s either you grieve and give up

or you grief

you acknowledge the failure and you

learn from it

and in this moment i was actually taught

to re-evaluate and even relearn my

motives of what

makes me upset by this failure

my motive was to prove myself

that i can be better from what people

think of me

but what makes me upset was that i

failed to prove it

but then it got me

what if i succeed

will the pride sustain

will i get caught in my small bubbles of

mine thinking that if i have succeeded i

would have stayed in my comfort zone

then the next question becomes what can

i do

next if i fail in the present times

in the next three to ten years or even

for a lifetime

with my closest people or even your

closest people definitely helps

in ensuring these thoughts

i realize that the process of grieving

is always needed

to assure that accomplishment means

something big to you

and finding ways to cope with it to get

to your next action

will determine how persistent you are

with your dream

in this moment as well i learned that

adversities

will always happen to you to evaluate

to help you relearn again what your

long-term goals

are if you succeed and that question

i never really thought of

adversities allow you to be what your

path

and the way you pivot it is actually in

your hand

to find my long-term goal i had to

explore what i’m really really

passionate about

because i know despite more failures and

adversities

this long-term goal will keep me going

or maybe like what angela duckworth said

it’s something that makes you greedy

but my quest and passion discovery

started through volunteering

in multi-organizations internships and

meeting

lots and lots of people more people than

what i thought my puberty self would

doubt i’d been able to do

it was pushing the limit for me

and in this exploration process

i was actually thought about something

that i really enjoyed seeing

it is growth

i actually see the same impact delivered

when i had my part-time job as a career

advisor during my time at uc davis

i had a chance to actually meet more

than 200 people

or even students every single quarter

who was so

confused of their next path

post-graduation

some of them even crying for hours

because they got rejected from

more than 50 jobs they applied to

and even some were smiling

when they told me that they got their

first offer letter

and ever since then seeing people

succeed

in their life or even career has become

my personal snack of joy and reward

i realized that this is something that i

wanted to see more of

and this is my passion

your passion can go from seeing people

grow

or even sustaining something because in

my case

my passion is seeing people grow seeing

me grow

seeing you grow and seeing them grow

passion turns out to be more than just a

thing that you decide to do

it is the impact that you are keen to

make or even find

from everything that you do

and this has become a baseline

foundation for what i look for in jobs

in products or even programs that i

built

and to start them you gotta be able

to question yourself again when you

encounter failure

what is the impact that i’m keen to make

in my life

what is my long-term goal because that

way

failure and adversities become only your

friend

do fine and sustain your passion