Let me tell you a story about a girl who has pink hair.

People judge all the time

It’s all starts with my pink hair. Around November last year, I just walked outside, locked the door, and went straight to the hair salon to dye my hair pink. I always want to dye my hair pink, don’t know because of those Disney movies I watched when I was a kid, or it’s because I really like the color. But I was afraid that people were gonna judge, especially my friends and my family. Even I myself judged my own pink hair sometimes. But just like that, I decided to step out of my comfort zone, stop caring about others’ opinions. Looking back, I’m so proud of myself.

Now people from my company know me as a technical writer who has pink hair. I keep the pink hair til now, and it keeps reminding me to try out new things, to be brave, and to be myself, the version that I wanna become, not the ideal of others. Whenever I fear trying something out of my comfort zone, I keep reminding myself that “you can do it, you have pink hair” – it’s like the pink hair gives me power, to be me.

People judge all the time, I learned that when I was being bullied in middle school. Being too girly when you’re not considered “beautiful enough” can become a reason for other girls to bully and isolate you. And that caused traumas.

People judge, but one thing I learned is that as long as you have faith in yourself then others’ opinions are nothing more than just a reference. Use that to grow and develop yourself, not to hide from what you truly are. Use that to step out, not to step in. Use that to become an even better version, not to become something you think others would like.

Small goals can become a huge sucess

This morning I woke up early, I didn’t have a nice sleep last night. But instead of sleeping in, I decided to went out for an hour’s walk. It was still dark and there was a voice inside my head telling me to head back home since it’s not safe to walk in the dark, but I didn’t listen to that inner voice. Stepping out super early in the morning gave me time to think, and that’s the reason why we’re having this blog written in English after almost 300 posts in Vietnamese. I think it’s about time to switch to English, so I can practice English but still keep the habit of writing. And I also want to prove that it’s okay to have some grammar mistakes, but the important thing is that you have the gut to try. I got the idea of writing blogs in English for a while, but I was afraid that people were gonna find out some errors in the post and humiliate me with that. This has to change, that’s my thought today. There’s no point in keep practicing writing and reading in Vietnamese since I have already given up the content marketing career path.

I’m turning 24 in about a month, and that makes me realize that I don’t have time to do everything. That’s why I have to really think about a good plan, doing relevant stuff instead of wasting my time like I did in the last two years. If I wanna lose weight, then start running. If I wanna change my career path, then start learning, seeking opportunities, and walking toward it. If it’s not now, then when? It’s gonna be tough I know, but I’m turning 24 in the next few weeks. One day I’ll be 80 looking back and I wanna feel happy as I made a decision to try, to fail, then to try again. It’s okay to be messy sometimes, better than having a life that looks so put together but you hate living in it. It’s about time, let’s do it!

Kami (Kim Xuan)