‘GO GREEN DRESS’ EXCLUSIVE COLUMN BY THI NGUYEN

CULTURE CONSCIOUS

AAPI ACKNOWLEDGEMENT & AWARENESS

Among many celebrations such as Mothers Day, Teachers Appreciation Day and Nurse Appreciation Day; May is also Mental Health Awareness, Military Appreciation, and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage (AAPI) month. It is a time to celebrate the contributions and influences of the AAPI community towards the culture, history and achievements to this nation.

Imagine a world without…

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Zoom

YouTube

LinkedIn

Twitter

Pinterest

Fitbit

Twitch

Kickstarter

Rotten Tomatoes

Linksys

WebEx

Poshmark

The Knot

Wedding Wire

Guitar Hero

What would we do? How would we stay connected? How would we thrive?

These are just SOME of the brands we know and love that were founded by Asian Americans.

And yet, during a time of celebration, many Asians continue to be targeted in racial hate crimes. As we focus this month on 'exploring conversion of awareness to action', I implore you to support your local AAPI community, friends and colleagues. Stand up against injustice and speak up when you have something to say. Help out another human if you see something that should be stopped. Personally, it has been extremely difficult to see footage and read about the senseless attacks happening to individuals around America. It is heartbreaking to know these incidents are happening in my own backyard.

As a Vietnamese American woman who enjoys traveling, exploring and making friends with complete strangers, I find it unsettling to know the possible dangers during my adventures could be due to how I look. Although dangerous situations can take place from a freak accident, an animal attack or getting sick, I never imagined having to worry about a direct attack due to my ethnicity. 

My ability to explore freely gives me the strength and freedom to continue sharing my adventures with the world. I cannot imagine a time when I'm too afraid to leave my home, too afraid to hike alone or too afraid to take on a multi day trek. I will not allow what is happening in today's society to dictate my ability to live a fulfilling and fruitful life. My goal is to continue to live without regrets and do what I can by positively impacting one life at a time.  105 AWARENOW / THE MAYDAY EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com