Throughout history, women continually ask and search for meaning in their lives. Today, more than ever, projected truths about happiness and contentment are shallow. Rather, there is a yearning for deeper meanings and true values that can define us and, in turn, show the world who we really are.
Four women reveal the stories of their lives through the values that shaped them into being the women they are. If not for inner truths such as the drive to prosperity, quest for wisdom, fundamentality of faith and love, and passion for excellence, these women may not be in the pedestals they hold today.
Tapping into this was the inspiration for creating Pandora’s Essence Collection, an emotional expression of one’s inner values through beautiful and symbolic charms. The collection linksus to who we are, and marks a deeper connection to and a profound understanding of the multi-faceted components that make up a woman and her life.
Amina Aranaz- Alunan
“Prosperity is having a dream, a goal, a vision, and being joyful while working to achieve it”, Amina declares. This is what social entrepreneur and designer, Amina Aranaz-Alunan held on to as she seized the opportunity to be recognized globally thru Filipino bag craftsmanship and talent.
Her fascination with fashion started when she was a child. “I sort of always knew that I would end up with a career in fashion, “ she recounts. She loved playing dress-up as a child and preferred toys that involved creativity, like Paint by Numbers and DIY hairbands. This desire for creativity led her to Milan where she studied fashion and design at the Instituto Marangoni. She was exposed to global fashion houses “All we did was breathe, talk and think about fashion,” Amina reminisces of her schooldays and internships in Milan.
Being successful in her endeavours, Amina shares that her secret to prosperity includes generosity, drive and passion. “Sharing and creating a bigger pie for everyone to partake enables one to prosper,” she utters.It’s also being able to share your success with others by helping them turn their dreams into reality.
Her heart’s desire led to the birth of School of Fashion and the Arts (SOFA), whose graduates are now working with major fashion brands while others have their own clothing lines. It all started with a goal of creating a venue to push the Philippine fashion industry forward, and for her, she finds fulfillment in seeing the institution grow and the students prosper.
Amina also shares her prosperity through her foundation, Rags to Riches. Being hands-on in the foundation, she makes sure that it contributes to the less fortunate through non-traditional means. This advocacy gives her inner peace and real joy because her love for creativity and design has now a deeper meaning.
Atty. Karen Jimeno- McBride
Coming from a family of prominent lawyers, Atty Karen Jimeno-McBride has been living the task of carrying on the legacy of her forefathers who possessed the values of wisdom and courage. Her great-grandfather was part of the Commission that drafted the first Philippine Constitution in 1935, and co-authored one of the first books about land, titles and deeds.
Atty. Karen Jimeno defines wisdom as “acknowledging that you don’t know everything. It means you are always open to learning and continually growing”. Karen believes that in order to gain wisdom, one should be open to learn from others and their experiences. “Openness, having a hunger for growth, being open to new experiences, striving to learn more and trying new things,” Karen points out.
“Knowing basically what lawyers can do really inspired me to become a lawyer myself and to create the change I wanted,” she shared. Consistently at the top of her class at Harvard Law School, she was the only woman asked to be part of the defense team of former Chief Justice Corona’s defense team during his impeachment trial. Karen brought to the panel a sense of wisdom and a fresh perspective to lawyering.
Coupled with wisdom is Karen’s innate ability to have courage. Karen says”Courage is not the absence of fear but it’s taking that fear and overcoming it in order to do the right thing even if you’re criticized and also to do what needs to be done.” Courage plays a big role in her line of work, as well as the advocacies she chooses. Currently, she plays a bigger role as the Communications Director for the rehabilitation of the Yolanda-stricken areas of southern Philippines under the leadership of Senator PanfiloLacson. Once more, she hopefully can offer wisdom and courage to this colossal challenge.
Kim Jones
Moving from Australia to the Philippines was a leap of faith for TV host, model and fashion blogger Kim Jones. However, finding love made it all worthwhile. Living in the Philippines for three years now, she has blossomed to be an independent, strong woman, grounded in faith and having a deeper appreciation of love and happiness.
“For me, love is eternal. It is a universal language, and nurtures us and allows us to grow by doing things that we are passionate about,” says Kim. Her first memory of love is a picture of her family during Christmas where she felt the warmth of their presence. Since then, little by little, various experiences taught her the different facets and forms love.
As she has grown into a wiser and mature woman, she appreciates the vitality of love in her everyday life. For her, it greatly influences the choices and decisions she makes, and helps her put things into proper perspective. Love also allows her to see the good in other people regardless of the circumstances.
“Love is everywhere, and it may come in the smallest details. You can see and feel love in a conversation, in a smile, through a kind gesture. We just need to look for it and see it on a different and positive light,” she explains.
Kim also finds love in helping local artists through her blog, kimcamjones.com. She considers this as her baby project and invests a lot of her time. She envisions her blogsite to be a platform to give spotlight to talented Filipinos where they can showcase their works, express and share their ideas, and she hopes to carry this out in the coming years.
The soon-to-be-married Kim also puts equal importance to faith as part of her life. For her, faith is the firm foundation under everything worth living, and without it, she wouldn’t be the woman she is today. “I believe that love and faith work hand in hand. These values influence me in making decisions,” she says.
Lisa Macuja -Elizalde
With determination, discipline and dedication seen in more than 30 years of her glorious life as the Philippines’ only prima ballerina, Lisa Macuja-Elizalde has clearly defined passion. And for her, it is definitely dancing.
“Passion is dance, it’s my commitment and my intense love for classical ballet which is the strictest form of dance,” Lisa indicates.
It is her love for ballet that keeps her fueled everyday, and it all started back when she was a kid. She became fascinated by this form of art because of her mom. After attending her first ballet class at the age of 9, her interest grew naturally. It was her first performance at the Meralco theater that made her realize that this is what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. “I remember putting on my makeup, the headdress and the costume I wore, and it felt like I was the most beautiful girl. It was just euphoria,” narrates Lisa. From then on she cultivated her passion in ballet through non-stop dancing. Few years later, it paved way for her to get scholarship in a prestigious ballet school in St. Petersburg, Russia.
She recalls the strength and determination she had during her stay in Russia. “It was intense, and my commitment came with pain, sweat, tears and being home sick, as I was away from my support system and was deprived with my usual life comforts,” tells Lisa. But all these turned into honor and prestige when she stepped on the wooden floors of the famous 250-year old Mariinsky Theater for her first performance as a student at the Vaganova Choreographic Institute, currently known as the Academy of Russian Ballet. “I was performing at the same spot where Galina Ulanova, USSR’s prima ballerina assoluta, performed. The applause after the performance was overwhelming, and more than that, the approval that I got from my teachers and mentors was confirmation that I was in the right direction in fulfilling my dreams,” says Lisa.
Her experience in Russia also inspired her to bring classical ballet to the Philippines. Together with this vision is the realization that in order for her art to survive, she needed to develop an audience who enjoys theater and has anappreciation for classical ballet. Bringing ballet to the people and people to the ballet became part of her plan, even if it meant going out of the traditional theater, performing in the streets, school gyms and dancing to a wide array of audience.
“Because I love what I do and I am very passionate about my art, it doesn’t feel like work for me. For me, passion is vital to have in because that is what makes your life worth living. It is what makes you happy, and it is what gives you direction and purpose,” she adds.
To date, the country’s prima ballerina and nominee as National Artist for Dance continues to spark hope to the young generation through Project Future Ballet, a scholarship program founded to make ballet an option for a way of life and a profession for talented young people who do not have the means to learn ballet. The foundation aims to provide bright futures and breadwinners for families, starting with training in classical ballet supplemented with equipment and nutrition assistance for the students.
Yet even now, after almost a year of her retirement, she still continues to discover new things everyday, acknowledging the importance of keeping one’s self by searching for new learnings.
“As long as I still feel like I’m an artist performing and delivering what the audience expects of me then I will continue to dance,” she concludes.
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