Different shades of privilege: mine is purple, yours?

Different shades of privilege: mine is purple, yours?

I am writing this in purple ink with my borrowed Montblanc fountain pen.

It gives my calligraphy a totally new shape, these people know how to design things.

However, every time I see it and I start writing with it, it brings a pang of guilt, followed by a wave of gratefulness.

I know I don’t need purple ink in a posh Montblanc pen to write my message, but doing so, I get reminded of my privilege and I get a nudge to stay humble and grateful and to want to contribute.

Because while I am using this tool to put thoughts on paper with stained purple fingers, little girls from underprivileged backgrounds don’t even learn how to write.

Other girls are signing marriage documents while they are still children.

Others are reading eviction letters out of the house they have always called home.

Some are writing letters to parents in prison.

I have found the last few months hard but so insightful. Things are getting a new perspective and I feel I am starting to really find my place in the world.

I am the girl who grew up bare foot on dusty side streets in a small village of communist Romania. The girl who cried when the dictator was executed. The girl whom was then taken from the village and spent days in a nursery she hated.

The teenager who found her tribe and wanted to be an artist, to create and express her quirkiness. But then she got hurt and let her dreams go.

She then decided to be an economist, as a sensible thing to do and ended up falling in love with hospitality.

I am the woman who did well in a corporate environment which respected her differences and celebrated her strengths, together with a team that became her second family.

She then went on to study an MBA in one of the most prestigious schools in the world.

After years of hard work and self healing, she became a dedicated parent, but that proved to be a challenge bigger than expected. She then found out she has been neurodivergent all along and that she wants to contribute more to the world her children grow up in.

I am the woman that now, after more than 20 years, allowed her creativity to really resurface, she feels inspired by it and is determined to help other people go through their own journey of self discovery.

This woman values, most of all, genuine human connection and fully appreciates its transformation power.

So how can we use this strong bond to inspire self acceptance, growth and tolerance?

How can we use our creativity and our privilege to enact needed change in the world?

I’ll take my special pen in between my purple stained fingers and I will write a letter, a letter of hope and of faith in humanity.

What is your shade of privilege?

Ashok Bhattacharya

Founder and President of the Empathy Clinic

3 年

Beautiful story Ana-Maria Ignat-Berget?. Hope builds hope….especially when written in purple. ????????

Sharmila H. B.

Copywriter | Ghostwriter | SEO Content writer | Write to change | One tribe. Be kind.

4 年

An inspiring article,Ana-Maria Ignat-Berget EMBA Green, is my shade. Green signals hope and the promise of new beginnings??

Rachel Warren

Giving love and support to help you get your glow back

4 年

I loved reading this and I found it humbling . Thank you Ana- Maria . I am just a geeky girl from the middle of nowhere who never fitted in but I know that I was blessed to have that and that their are many who would have traded with me . ??

Khaliq Ahmed

Owner at chairman enterprises

4 年

Red

Geoff Woliner, CPCM ????

I don't help busy entrepreneurs. They're busy. Seriously, why are we always bothering these people? What did they ever do to us? ??♂?/ Author, "The Path to Perfectia" series ??

4 年

Very strong and uplifting message.

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