Consuelo You Were Born Hardwired
Having lived 59 years so far, I stick with my innate opinion that people come hardwired at birth. At that point, it’s up to the parents to create the arena that their little ones can thrive in and learn to love their true self. Still, parenting is tricky and stressful at times. So, how do you know if you are living your true self?
For some people, it’s easy to understand their true self. Perhaps, they were born with a specific, even obvious, talent or gift. An innate talent tends to readily prompt a little person to act on it with little effort involved. As individuals get older, dedication and hard work hone the skill. And yet, as most adults have learned, dedication can get disrupted by the most mundane of life needs, like paying the bills and long commutes.
More difficult, though, are the obscure talents. These talents manifest later in life or take some living to understand. In that delay, people may get off their path and away from living their true self. Worse yet, people are led astray by family or society. In my case, I was to become either “a doctor, lawyer or engineer”.
I wanted to be a record album cover artist. In the early 80’s, this was definitely a world my Peruvian mother would not allow. Bands were heavy metal, rock or punk. Band members had longer hair than I did or spiked into helmets. Instead, my mom opted for the “safe” environment of the white American males. Yeah, not my true self, in the least.
Look to Your Childhood Pictures
I was definitely a fish out of water and water is my salvation. Being the only woman in my engineering classes was tricky. Being the first woman hired in a SF firm of 40 men was ridiculous. Although the men in both scenarios were gregarious and kind, it only took one to make life miserable.
There were many haunting days of feeling I wasn’t on my honest path. I often wondered if I had strayed from my hardwired little person. My cultural heritage means everything to me. Yet, it had forced me into a profession for security rather than joy. Still, the artist in me was easily accessible, just not professionally trained.
Eager to ensure other Latina women remained their true self, I decided to start the Life Lnxx Podcast. It was a major learning curve to understand all the aspects, from technology and audio engineering to content and marketing. So much emphasis was placed on the cover art that I got unnerved.
Only to realize this was my moment to shine as an album cover artist, my true self. I opted for the picture you see today. It was a spontaneous shot captured by my husband while we were visiting friends in Cuba. I was in pure joy in the warmth of good company, turquoise waters and cold mojitos at El Laurel. My husband knows it when he sees it and never misses the moment. And so, the cover art pic.
Since I use it often in my marketing, that picture began to pluck at earlier memories, more like a deja vú come. Then one day, in organizing the memories of my parent’s belongings, there she was. My hardwired little person in the same pose, hands on hat, broad smile and beaming into the eyes of life.
So, my true self never left the building. She has always been leading the way. I just had to learn to trust her.
