It’s International Women’s Day
A day of celebrating women’s achievements -- and while we have a long way to go to achieve parity, I can’t help but consider how far we have come.
When my mom graduated from college in Korea in the 1960s, having graduated at the top of her class from a high-ranking college (majoring in Math, no less), one of the few jobs open to her was being a bank teller. To add insult to injury, she had to sign a contract when accepting the job that she would quit when she got married! Although she became a “housewife” after marriage and had two girls, she never stopped learning new things.
My most vivid memories of childhood is my mom showing us all the new things she learned in the many, many classes she took -- painting, calligraphy, piano, macrame, cake-making, floral design, batik-making, and on and on. After years of hobbies, my mom eventually became a real estate developer. The fact that she knew nothing about real estate or construction didn’t bother her. She went out and bought a piece of land, gathered some people together and put up a 12-story building, a pink stucco overlooking a river (and aptly named Riverville). This building would turn out to be the first of many.
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