E347 Diana Marcela Agudelo Ospina

Hello, my name is Aziz and I'm the son of a divorced mother. She's really my superhero. That's why it's important for me to support women to share their uniqueness, their personalities, perspectives, and emotions about life. Too many women in this world feel alone. They worry about the judgment of others and they struggle with their mental health, but when they listen to the Rare Girls podcast where empowered women share their voices and tell their stories, many women will feel inspired to live a life of freedom and to overcome all insecurities. they will feel. It is a safe space to find their confidence, to remember their unique beauty and to feel their self-worth, and they will connect with the sisterhood of rare girls who encourage their success and support their dreams. That's what this podcast is all about. My guest today is Diana Marcela Agudelo Ospina. Diana is a graphic designer from de Jean, Colombia. She loves photography, animals. She has more than 10 animals, including five dogs and five cats in her home. She loves to travel and to find herself in the reality of other contexts and to learn from other cultures and from other people. She loves languages and is interested in learning more of them. Diana, how are you today? Hi, Aziz. I'm really good. Thank you for having me. This is an amazing opportunity, and I love to share all the things that I know. I'm happy, honored, and blessed to have you here. And I'll begin with this nice first question to know more about you, which is if your friends could describe your personality, what would they say about you? So this is like hard for me because I think that my friends like categorize me in different ways, but I think that one in particular, in particularly that is general is unique. I think that they find in me like a different person who can be like, they can be like very authentic. So they can be like the real them with me because I'm me in every time. So I'm not pretending to be anyone else, just like celebrate all the things that I learned in all my years. And I think that I'm very a loving person with them and they appreciate like my sincere friendship with them too. That's very important and thank you for sharing that. A lot of women struggle with that. They feel if they are their authentic self, maybe they will judge, get judged by others, that maybe some people will make fun of them and all that. First, were you always someone who behaved in a very unique way or is it something you developed over time? Tell me more about your story as a woman who found and is developing and growing more and more her uniqueness. You know, when I was in the school, I struggled a lot with that because I always have been like the rare girl, like, okay, she's rare for them. So for some reasons, she likes art, but no one understand her. Like it was very difficult for me like to be part of something that I like really embrace. But I think that when I get into the college, I study graphic design and I start to find more things that I really like. So I think that when I start working as a graphic designer, like every step of my life lead me to an answer. So for me, these two past years were very difficult because I lost my dad because of the COVID and then I lost my aunt. So after that, it was a very big change in my life. So all of my beliefs and thoughts that I had, I was like, okay, I just lost like the most important person in my life. So what is the point of trying to be someone that I don't, I don't know. Like, I just, and I just have one life And if everything is going to be at the same time, we are going to be dead at some time. So I just wanted to be me because I have I want to have the opportunity to be me and not trying to be someone else, like trying to fit in some like case. No, I just and it was very difficult because I was a chain to show me as I am because I was thinking like, oh my God, that could be maybe too weird for some people, but I'm starting to show myself more. I'm seeing that the people embrace that and they tell me good things about that that I'm showing. So it's a little, it's a process, but I don't know, I think that you just have to try and keep trying and keep trying and learning step by step all the things that you have in your environment, I think. I really feel sorry for your loss for your father and aunt. I can imagine how hard that was. And it's like you said, the most important person in your life. And I noticed as well that you speak a lot about learning and you also said that every time life, you get a new answer. Can you explain to you? Because it seems to me that you are a learner, that learning is in many ways the most important, exciting and interesting activity in your life. A lot of people have a fixed mindset where they may be after school or something, they stop learning and then they live the same day and repeat again and again and again for the rest of their life. What motivates you to learn? Tell me more about like what is interesting to about learning share more about your learning side. I think that I am a very I am a creative person so everything that I see as new is like okay what this thing can be or what this could do I like like having a mind like to research and like like I don't know the term that the kids say that they have like curious mind. So I think that maybe have a curious mindset with everything that I know is like one of the most important things. From the school, I'm like a very good and behave student. So I always had like the 10s and like, I was like the good girl, But then I started to see that I can learn, like, from everything and from everyone. Like, I can even, like, learn from a person that, like, garden all the time, that they know how to grow a plant in some way. So that, for me, is, like, okay. I appreciate all the wisdom that the people and the things have, because I think that it's not only the people who has wisdom, I also saw that, for example, if you see an animal, how do he behave or learn to respect the environment, the nature. I learned a lot from that and introspection side too. When I was in January in San Andres, I made a scuba diving course. So I was very scared at the first time because you have like all the scuba things like in you and it's very heavy and the sea was like climbing and was very rough. So I was there like in front of the sea and I was thinking like okay this is the time, but I was second guessing. So I was like, I have to do it. That's it. Like I have to, if I stay here, this is the only thing that I will know. But if I jump, I can like discover another word that my eyes like never imagined. So that's like very, I'm trying to get that mindset like in every step that I'm going through, like, okay, this is difficult for me, but I have to do it. If I don't do it, I don't know what is next to it. I don't know, more like that. I love that mindset. And it makes me ask you for your perspective and advice for many women who just like you said before jumping, you are afraid and you are second guessing yourself. They stay stuck in their comfort zone. Some of them, they think, oh, maybe I should live to what my parents say and stay in my comfort zone outside of it. It's too dangerous. Or they worry a lot and they imagine the worst situation happening if they do that. But in reality, their creativity and potential is outside their comfort zone. So what's your advice to them so that they will have the courage to go out of their comfort zone to discover the new realities and the new world and the new potential there. Yeah, for sure. Even when you describe that, I imagine me like eight months ago, because I was that. I was like, okay, I can do this, I can do that. I didn't trust me. I didn't trust in my process, like in my intelligence, in all the talents that I have, because I'm not that good. I'm not that this, I'm not that that. So for me was that experience like being in front of the sea because there is like the sea is so big. So like getting out of my mind and see the things in another perspective. If I have the problem, I make it so, so big in my head that is like absurd. But when I put it in perspective is like a little thing. So for me, be under the sea and see all the magnificent things that are there. And I was like a little, little thing in that immense vast ocean. I was like, okay, maybe my problems and all my doubts and all the things that I had in my head doesn't have like that reason and also one dear friend of mine told me like you have these two like voices in your head like okay you can do this you can do that but you always hear that voice but you never thought that maybe that voice could be wrong why is that voice always had the right no oh like everyone kind of like making wrong or something like that why always that voice you to trust in the other voice and try it you never know gonna know where it's going to be like the outcome of that if you don't try it and i'm like now like eight years eight months after that like okay i'm going to try because if i don't do it i'm not going to know what is going to be the that having all that worries and all that thoughts and are very dangerous thoughts, like the ones that put you to cry and to feel you're bad. And I was like, I don't want to live like that. I want to be happy. I want to live in peace with me. That if I don't live in peace with me, who else is going to give me that, I don't know. Thank you. And I noticed that you value yourself a lot, and you want yourself to be happy. There is a situation nowadays in social media all over the world and in Colombia where some women compare to other women who are photoshopped or in plastic surgery or live in life of a jet setting. And then they think, oh no, I'm not good like her. Maybe I'm a bad person. Maybe I don't deserve to be happy because I'm ugly or whatever because women don't see their unique beauty. Did you struggle with this? And what is your opinion about this? How can you help especially teenage girls who all their life, all they see is women with full makeup who are in Monaco or are in Los Angeles or Vegas or Dubai. And then they think, oh no, I'm an ugly girl. Maybe I should be depressed because of this. And they do feel that sadness and depression? Look, I work a lot with that. So I know all the struggle. And I think that social media and all the things that they are selling us are now, it's just an illusion. So you can like just Photoshop yourself and put you in Dubai and you are in Dubai. You can sell anything just in social media. But as that, what like the opinion of the other person matters, like, you know, for me is that like, okay, I have like, I don't know, 400 followers, but do they really know me? Or do they really know who I am? I don't know, because they don't see me as a real person, just like a picture that I want to put there. I want to put it like edited or not edited. Yeah, just like, it's just a lie. So I don't I, my advice would be like, be your true self. Who are you? Like, try to find what are the things that are treating you to live. Like, okay, do you like to travel? Do you like to paint? I don't know. Like, the most I was, I know a guy five months ago, I mean, he'll think me like, I love maths, so do it. If you find the thing that thrills you to live, do it. Social media is just like makeup. You can transform everything into social media. You can be whatever you want. And I think that the social media is in constant Now is they embrace more like the different people like all the bodies. And I think that you can find beauty in everything. Like even if you think that you are ugly, I can assure you like you can be beautiful to the right eyes. So, yeah. Thank you. I love that. You said in the beginning that your friends can be authentic around you because you are yourself. Can you share a bit more what causes people to feel they cannot be authentic? Do you think it's something from society, maybe from religion, from school, that if you're not being a good, like you said, a good girl, you get punished and you don't get good grades? I want to understand this a bit more. And then what makes you, is it related also to the death of your father and aunt that you decided to be authentic or was it from before? How was your journey? I want to understand, for women, what do you believe makes them feel? No, it's not possible to be fully authentic. And for you, how did you become someone who people can feel they can be themselves when they're with you? You know, I know that I am a very privileged person that I have like the opportunity to travel. So I can know different cultures and how do they be behave in different ways. So for example, here in Colombia, we are a society that is very Catholic, very conservative. So maybe that, like the things that you were learning when you were little and started like growing and in the school like that makes you a shape but like in puberty you have to make it your own like okay I have this but I have like to make like the body of this so for me after the the deaths that suffer. It was more like, I heard a sentence that stuck in my head that it said, like, that can be your best opportunity. So that changed all your reality and puts everything into a different perspective. Like, so what is the meaning of being here? If it's just one, like trying to be something that I'm not, like make me suffer all the time, or maybe find who I am, like surround me with good people, with people that I know that loves me, because for me, my friends have been like a, like a very pilot, like a pilot very, very, very important in all this process, because I know that if I'm not with them, maybe I will be like, I will be here for me love and share that love with the person that you think that they need. It's very important. Like I had all the support, all the love when I needed. And I think that love like share, share each, no, share lead another person is so like beautiful. yesterday I was making a video and there was a guy that was a very shy person and for me was very beautiful because he took the risk to make the video with us and he was having a blast making the video. So for me like trying to do another kind of things and just like having fun with it It's so amazing and yeah I think that the dead can be a great opportunity if you see it like that like you have to learn about everything that happens in your life. I also heard a sentence that said if it's not a blessing it's a lesson. So I don't think that the death of my dad or my aunt has been to be a blessed, but sure is a lesson that I have to learn. And if I can share all of that to another girls that they can embrace who they are. The world believe me is so big that if you share who are you, you're only putting a little dot of difference in all these big big words. So yeah. Thank you so much for that. I love it. And to finish this, I have to ask about your love for animals. You hope they have more than 10. What do you learn from them? What do they add to your life? Are they like your small teachers for authenticity and instinct? How does it work? And also, how did you begin having so many animals in your I think that I had that unscripted love like since I was a little girl and I think that they choose me. I really think that they choose me because all my animals are rescued. So I took them from the street and that's it. But I took them when I didn't know. but now that the time has passed, I know that they appear in a really complicated situation in my life and they give me that love that all the animals give and they don't need anything back. They just give love and they are with you in every time that you are struggling, if you are happy, if you are like in every kind of way, it's like a loyalty and for me, every animal that I have has a personality, has a name, has like a uniqueness thing to gave me that maybe people don't understand. So for me, love the nature, love the plants, like everything can teach you something Just like being present is like the most important thing because if you see, for example, a tree or something is like something that is there and enjoying the beauty of everything that is happening around you. And I think that now the life is going so fast that you don't stop and see what is around you. Like, oh, I didn't see that maybe this tree, the leaves fall or I don't know. Because I think that you just be and that's it. You don't look around. So that will be my advice, like look around you and look everything that you can learn. Like, okay, if you are with your family, so how long do you talk with maybe your mom, your brother, your father, how is he? Is he good? How is his day? Like, look around you and like stop thinking in social media. Like be present in this war, in this moment that you can like leave it and breathe and like share and the blue, Like the sky is blue. So for example in New York was gray. So, yeah, I don't know if I explain me well but yeah like look everything that is surround you and appreciate that more instead of being like in a war that doesn't exist. that is like the cell phone and the social media and all the things that they are trying to sell you because at the least is that. They are trying to sell you something and they are making money with your attention and with like all the clicks and likes that you gave, I don't know. I understand fully and completely. Thank you so much, Diana. It was honestly my privilege and my honor to interview you, to share your perspective and your voice and your wisdom. I wish you all the travels in the world. I wish your animals who chose you all the happiness. I wish you all the connection with your friends and to always learn more and grow your creativity and enjoy life without limits. Thank you for participating. You're putting me so emotional for this. Thank you very much. I really appreciate this opportunity. And it was my as I tell you, it was my first time and you made me feel like very comfortable. And I, I am more than happy if this touch anyone and they can learn a little bit from this. It's amazing that you are doing this. It's amazing. Thank you so much.