QUEST FOR STRENGHT

Happy International Women's day fellow sharks! I wish us all strength. To speak up, to be persistent, to continue going. Here are a few quotes from books written by strong women. These stories have definitely helped me to feel less alone while trying to find my voice and my place in this world.

All my love,

L.

" Blame is unpleasant, and praise is pleasant but neither has any bearing on what one is doing."

" I know people say "oh just ignore the tweets & comments and abuse and block the bullies and it will all go away". And occasionally I do. But I also think ... NO. Ignoring the bullies (..) give voice to bigotry and threat and violence without rebuke or address is a kind of silence I am not interested in. I don't react well to being bullied or being backed into a corner. I don't want to be silenced, that's why I keep tweeting. "

" I don't want to be silent. Women have been silenced to a millenia and I am not going to be a part of that. I want to speak up and if that means I sometimes get it wrong then I should be able to correct myself, apologise, move on and still carry on speaking up. As a woman, I am not meant to be an angel or a saint or a martyr or to have faultless encyclopaedic answers all the time. I am a woman only. And like all women, I don't ask for a special treatment. Like all women, I just ask to not be repressed or silenced."

"There are truths we face and truth we ignore. I spent the next six months quietly trying to empower myself without making any sort of abrupt change. At work I met with a partner in charge of my division asking to be given more challenging assignments. I tried to focus on the projects I found most meaningful, including my efforts to recruit a new and more diverse crop of summer associates. All the while I kept an eye on job listings in the newspaper and did my best to network with more people who were not lawyers. One way or another I'd figure I'd work myself towards some version of feeling whole."

" Whether I developed as a player would depend on my toughness. Does Masha have it or not? (..) By toughness Yudkin meant persistence. The quality that makes you lock in & focus when asked to do the same thing a million times. If you ask most kids to do something, they will do it once or twice then get restless, shut down and walk away. To be great at anything, you have to be able to endure a tremendous amount of boredom. That is - you have to be tough."