Owner of my Power

My life is unique to me yet so similar to other women around the world. I was born a woman; I am a daughter, a sister, a granddaughter, a friend. My destiny according to others included being a mother, a caregiver, a religious female in help to others by way of praying. No. I am a woman but I decide my destiny, I shape my world.
My life is in living circles, intersecting ones and at the core is myself. I choose my husband but I choose not to have children. I choose to believe that your religion is in your actions towards others, why should I believe in the Immaculate Conception (misconception?), and what does it say about our future? Speak up and you will be branded as crazy! Yes, I am crazy but religion and women have an unequal relationship. This was my first act of assertiveness, the first of many to come, I was nine years old.
Then I began to truly understand what being me means. Early in my teens I was seeing but rarely heard. The media presented women as recipients of so much needed restoration through make-up products, how to please a man, how to dress…How about how to think? I became aware of the silent consensus many of my female peers were involved. Time to snap! My first question was what life do I want and what education should I deserve? This was a period of chaos and sadness, school was boring and predictable.
Regardless of my feelings, my life philosophy starts taking shape when I started law school in my country, Colombia. Where were we within the law system? There were any laws that sanction equal pay? Where were the rights of the women in property disputes? Words, concepts, theories…no actions. In this intersection point of my life between the politics and the personal I decided that I was going to work for women independence: from patriarchs, for economic and political freedom, and for a life free of violence. Violence in all forms: common denominator.
I began my life as an immigrant in USA, once again defying expectation, stereotypes, learning a language to verbalize the same issues. Starting all over again in a place where inclusion has a color and status. New beginnings, I choose the university I went, I travel to Africa, Asia and Latin America designing women business development tools for asset development and I am an advocate for me and for us. Web 2.0 is the vehicle to advocate for change, to question the information and the power behind it. Poverty is hard on women and their children, wherever I go poverty hurts in the bones. We need economic, social, political inclusion to shape our lives. I always ask myself who benefits for each political decision taken in behalf of us. It seems that if is not accomplished through politics, it is through religion!