Me in 2011 on top of the Devil’s Marbles, a rock formation in the Australian Outback.
Lots of people have written about the importance of not letting your job title define you and I am finally chiming in. After recently reading the blink of a book called Minimalism, which argues among other things that each person is far more than just her profession, I realized I myself am guilty of asking people I meet the annoying question, “what do you do?”
Dear reader who I interviewed today for an article,
Thank you for following some of my work, telling me you appreciate my pieces and that you think I write well. I am grateful for the feedback!
Best,
ShelleyP.S. You made my day.
— Shelley Pascual (@shelleypascual) May 30, 2018
On holidays in Costa Rica in 2008.
With the trend of women shaving their heads on the rise, I’ve felt compelled to reflect on what the head shave experience was like for me a decade ago.
Even in 2008, the shaved female head — which is rooted in ancient traditions and spans various cultures and beliefs — wasn’t new.
Britney Spears shaved her own head a year before I did. And before her both Grace Jones and Sinead O’Connor were baldies in the 1970s and 1980s, respectively.
But there hasn’t really been a movement in the past that’s similar to what’s happening now. Currently a growing community of women are dismissing the traditional notion of long hair being equated with femininity.
More and more, hashtags like #BaldiesGettheJobDone on social media are being used by a fearless group of females who dare to defy societal standards.
Mountain biking in the Harz region in Germany circa 2015.
One key thing I’ve learned as a job seeker is that my identity isn’t entirely defined by my profession. Realizing this has been helpful for me in dealing with the ups and downs of carving out a career for myself (without the slightest idea how to go about doing it).
So yes, I’m a journalist, but I’m also…
Who knew that trusting my gut and risking everything would alter the course of my life?
Seeing the Berlin Wall for the first time.
When I flew from Toronto to Berlin on a one-way ticket back in early 2012, I didn’t have a job or an internship lined up in Germany. I was 25 years old and I had just spent a year in Australia.
At the time, all I knew was that I was keen on continuing to live abroad. I was intrigued by the idea of immersing myself in German culture and society. I also wanted to be reunited with my German boyfriend, as we’d met in Australia.
The only plan I had was to figure everything out once I got to Germany.
