The power of diversity within yourself | Rebeca Hwang

Translator: Nauka N. Prasadini Reviewer: Intan Andini

Kami berpegangan tangan,

dan menatap ke pintu.

Saya dan saudara-saudara saya menunggu ibu kami kembali

dari rumah sakit.

We're holding hands,

Ibu di sana karena nenek kami menjalani operasi kanker di hari itu.

staring at the door.

My siblings and I were waiting for my mother to come back

Akhirnya, pintu terbuka,

from the hospital.

She was there because my grandmother had cancer surgery that day.

dan ibu berkata,

“Nenek sudah tiada.

Dia sudah tiada.”

Ibu mulai terisak dan langsung berkata,

Finally, the doors opened,

“Kita harus menyusun rencana.

and she said,

"She's gone.

“Wasiat nenek kalian adalah dimakamkan di kampung halaman di Korea.”

She's gone."

She started sobbing and immediately said,

"We must make arrangements.

Saat itu saya baru berusia 12 tahun, dan saat rasa syok itu mereda,

Your grandmother's dying wish was to be buried back home in Korea."

kata-kata ibu berdengung di telinga saya.

Nenek minta dimakamkan di kampung halaman.

I was barely 12 years old, and when the shock wore off,

my mother's words were ringing in my ears.

Kami pindah dari Korea ke Argentina 6 tahun sebelumnya,

My grandmother wanted to be buried back home.

tanpa paham bahasa Spanyol, atau tahu bagaimana kami mencari nafkah.

We had moved from Korea to Argentina six years prior,

Dan saat tiba, kami adalah imigran yang kehilangan segalanya,

without knowing any Spanish, or how we were going to make a living.

jadi kami bekerja keras untuk membangun kembali hidup kami.

Jadi tidak terpikir oleh saya bahwa setelah bertahun-tahun,

And upon arrival, we were immigrants who had lost everything,

kampung halaman tetaplah di Korea.

so we had to work really hard to rebuild our lives.

So it hadn't occurred to me that after all these years,

Hal itu membuat saya merenung di mana saya ingin dimakamkan nanti,

back home was still in Korea.

di mana kampung halaman saya,

dan jawabannya tidak jelas.

It made me ponder where I would want to be buried someday,

Dan hal itu sangat mengganggu saya.

where home was for me,

Jadi episode ini mendorong pencarian seumur hidup akan identitas saya.

and the answer was not obvious.

And this really bothered me.

Saya lahir di Korea— tanah Kimchi;

So this episode launched a lifelong quest for my identity.

dibesarkan di Argentina,

di mana saya makan banyak sekali steik dan kemungkinan saya 80% sapi sekarang;

I was born in Korea -- the land of kimchi;

dan saya mengenyam pendidikan di AS,

raised in Argentina,

di mana saya menjadi pecandu selai kacang.

where I ate so much steak that I'm probably 80 percent cow by now;

(Suara tawa)

Saat masih kecil, saya merasa seperti orang Argentina,

and I was educated in the US,

tapi penampilan saya selalu berkata sebaliknya.

where I became addicted to peanut butter.

Saya ingat pada hari pertama SMP,

(Laughter)

During my childhood, I felt very much Argentinian,

guru Sastra Spanyol saya masuk ke ruangan.

but my looks betrayed me at times.

Beliau mengamati semua teman sekelas saya,

dan beliau berkata,

I remember on the first day of middle school,

“Kau— kau harus dapat tutor,

my Spanish literature teacher came into the room.

jika tidak, kau akan gagal di kelas ini.”

She scanned all of my classmates,

Tapi saat itu, saya sudah mahir berbahasa Spanyol,

and she said,

"You -- you have to get a tutor,

rasanya seperti saya bisa jadi orang Korea atau Argentina,

otherwise, you won't pass this class."

But by then I was fluent in Spanish already,

namun bukan keduanya.

Rasanya seperti permainan zero-sum,

so it felt as though I could be either Korean or Argentinian,

di mana saya mengorbankan identitas lama

untuk mendapatkan yang baru.

but not both.

It felt like a zero-sum game,

Jadi saat saya berusia 18 tahun, saya memutuskan untuk pergi ke Korea,

where I had to give up my old identity

to be able to gain or earn a new one.

dengan harapan bahwa akhirnya saya menemukan tempat bernama rumah.

So when I was 18, I decided to go to Korea,

Tapi orang-orang bertanya pada saya,

“Kenapa kau fasih berbahasa Korea dengan aksen Spanyol?”

hoping that finally I could find a place to call home.

(Suara tawa)

Dan, “Kau pasti orang Jepang karena matamu besar

But there people asked me,

"Why do you speak Korean with a Spanish accent?"

dan bahasa tubuhmu asing.”

Jadi ternyata saya terlalu Korea bagi orang Argentina,

(Laughter)

And, "You must be Japanese because of your big eyes

tapi terlalu Argentina bagi orang Korea.

and your foreign body language."

Dan hal ini sangat menyadarkan saya.

And so it turns out that I was too Korean to be Argentinian,

Saya gagal menemukan tempat di dunia ini yang bisa disebut rumah.

but too Argentinian to be Korean.

And this was a pivotal realization to me.

Tapi berapa banyak orang Korea berpenampilan Jepang

I had failed to find that place in the world to call home.

yang berbicara dengan aksen Spanyol—

atau bahkan lebih spesifik, beraksen Argentina—

But how many Japanese-looking Koreans who speak with a Spanish accent --

yang ada di luar sana?

Mungkin ini bisa menjadi keuntungan.

or even more specific, Argentinian accent --

Mudah bagi saya untuk menonjolkan diri,

yang tidak ada salahnya di dunia yang berubah dengan cepat,

do you think are out there?

Perhaps this could be an advantage.

di mana keterampilan bisa jadi usang dalam semalam.

It was easy for me to stand out,

Jadi saya berhenti mencari 100 persen kesamaan itu

which couldn't hurt in a world that was rapidly changing,

where skills could become obsolete overnight.

dengan mereka yang saya temui.

So I stopped looking for that 100 percent commonality

Sebaliknya, saya sadar bahwa seringkali, saya yang satu-satunya bersinggungan

dengan kelompok yang biasanya saling bertentangan satu sama lain.

with the people that I met.

Instead, I realized that oftentimes, I was the only overlap

Jadi dengan mengingat hal ini,

saya memutuskan untuk merangkul semua versi berbeda diri saya—

between groups of people that were usually in conflict with each other.

bahkan membiarkan diri untuk terkadang menemukan kembali diri saya.

So with this realization in mind,

I decided to embrace all of the different versions of myself --

Contohnya, saat SMA,

even allow myself to reinvent myself at times.

Saya akui saya sangat kutu buku.

Saya tak punya selera mode— berkacamata tebal, gaya rambut sederhana—

So for example, in high school,

Anda paham maksudnya.

Sepertinya, saya punya teman hanya karena saya berbagi pekerjaan rumah saya.

I have to confess I was a mega-nerd.

I had no sense of fashion -- thick glasses, simple hairstyle --

Itulah kenyataannya.

Tapi saat kuliah,

you can get the idea.

I think, actually, I only had friends because I shared my homework.

saya bisa menemukan identitas baru bagi saya,

dan si kutu buku menjadi gadis populer.

That's the truth.

But once at university,

I was able to find a new identity for myself,

Tapi saya berada di MIT,

jadi saya tak tahu apakah saya layak mendapat gelar itu.

and the nerd became a popular girl.

Seperti kata mereka di sana,

“Peluangnya apik,

tapi hasilnya eksentrik.”

But it was MIT,

so I don't know if I can take too much credit for that.

(Suara tawa)

As they say over there,

Saya beralih jurusan berkali-kali hingga dosen penasihat saya bergurau

"The odds are good,

but the goods are odd."

kalau saya harus mendapat gelar di “program studi acak.”

(Laughter)

(Suara tawa)

I switched majors so many times that my advisors joked

Saya cerita ini ke anak saya.

Dan selama bertahun-tahun, saya mendapat berbagai identitas yang berbeda.

that I should get a degree in "random studies."

(Laughter)

Saya mulai sebagai seorang penemu, pengusaha, inovator sosial.

I told this to my kids.

And then over the years, I have gained a lot of different identities.

Lalu saya menjadi seorang investor,

wanita berkarir teknologi,

I started as an inventor, entrepreneur, social innovator.

seorang guru.

Dan baru-baru ini, saya menjadi seorang ibu,

Then I became an investor,

atau kata balita saya berulang kali,

a woman in tech,

a teacher.

“Ibu!” sepanjang hari.

And most recently, I became a mom,

Bahkan aksen saya terdengar membingungkan—

or as my toddler says repeatedly,

"Mom!" day and night.

asal-usulnya sangat tak jelas,

itu sebabnya teman-teman menyebutnya, “Rebecanese.”

Even my accent was so confused --

(Suara tawa)

Tetapi menemukan kembali diri Anda bisa sangat sulit.

its origin was so obscure,

Anda bisa menghadapi berbagai perlawanan.

that my friends called it, "Rebecanese."

Saat saya hampir mendapatkan gelar PhD,

(Laughter)

But reinventing yourself can be very hard.

saya digigit oleh gangguan kewirausahaan itu.

You can face a lot of resistance at times.

Saat itu saya kerja di Silicon Valey,

dan menulis tesis di ruang bawah tanah terdengar tak semenarik

When I was nearly done with my PhD,

I got bitten by that entrepreneurial bug.

seperti membangun perusahaan sendiri.

I was in Silicon Valley,

Jadi saya mengunjungi orang tua Korea saya yang tradisional

and so writing a thesis in the basement didn't seem as interesting

yang hadir hari ini,

untuk memberitahu mereka

as starting my own company.

bahwa saya akan mundur dari studi PhD saya.

So I went to my very traditional Korean parents,

Anda lihat, saya dan saudara-saudara saya adalah generasi pertama yang kuliah,

who are here today,

with the task of letting them know

that I was going to drop out from my PhD program.

jadi bagi sebuah keluarga imigran, ini adalah hal yang besar.

Anda bisa bayangkan arah pembicaraan ini.

You see, my siblings and I are the first generation to go to university,

Tapi syukurnya, saya punya senjata rahasia,

so for a family of immigrants, this was kind of a big deal.

yaitu bagan rata-rata penghasilan semua lulusan

You can imagine how this conversation was going to go.

But fortunately, I had a secret weapon with me,

program PhD Stanford,

which was a chart that had the average income of all of the graduates

dan rata-rata pemasukan semua orang yang putus kuliah

dari program S2 Stanford.

from Stanford PhD programs,

(Suara tawa)

Perlu saya beri tahu— bagan ini pasti condong

and then the average income of all the dropouts

pada para pendiri Google.

(Suara tawa)

from Stanford graduate programs.

Tapi ibu saya melihat bagan itu,

(Laughter)

dan ia berkata,

I must tell you -- this chart was definitely skewed

“Oh, kalau kamu -- ikuti saja minatmu.”

by the founders of Google.

(Laughter)

(Suara tawa)

But my mom looked at the chart,

Halo, Bu.

and she said,

Nah, saat ini, pencarian identitas saya bukan lagi untuk menemukan suku saya.

"Oh, for you -- follow your passion."

(Laughter)

Hi, Mom.

Ini lebih tentang membiarkan diri saya

Now, today my identity quest is no longer to find my tribe.

merangkul semua kemungkinan permutasi diri saya sendiri

dan memupuk keragaman dalam diri saya

It's more about allowing myself

to embrace all of the possible permutations of myself

dan bukan hanya di sekitar saya.

and cultivating diversity within me

Putra-putra saya sekarang berusia tiga tahun dan lima bulan,

dan mereka sudah terlahir dengan tiga kewarganegaraan

and not just around me.

dan empat bahasa.

My boys now are three years and five months old today,

Saya harus menyebutkan sekarang bahwa suami saya sebenarnya dari Denmark—

and they were already born with three nationalities

andai saya kekurangan guncangan budaya dalam hidup ini,

and four languages.

saya menikah dengan orang Denmark.

I should mention now that my husband is actually from Denmark --

Faktanya, saya rasa anak-anak saya akan menjadi Viking pertama

yang akan kesulitan menumbuhkan janggut saat mereka sudah besar.

just in case I don't have enough culture shocks in my life,

I decided to marry a Danish guy.

(Suara tawa)

Ya, kami harus mengusahakannya.

In fact, I think my kids will be the first Vikings

Tapi saya harap mereka akan menemukan bahwa keragaman mereka

who will have a hard time growing a beard when they become older.

(Laughter)

akan membuka dan membuat banyak pintu bagi hidup mereka,

Yeah, we'll have to work on that.

But I really hope that they will find that their multiplicity

dan bahwa mereka dapat menggunakannya sebagai cara untuk menemukan kesamaan

di dunia yang semakin global saat ini.

is going to open and create a lot of doors for them in their lives,

and that they can use this as a way to find commonality

Saya harap, alih-alih mereka merasa cemas dan khawatir

in a world that's increasingly global today.

bahwa mereka tidak sesuai pada sebuah kotak

atau identitas mereka menjadi tidak relevan suatu hari nanti,

I hope that instead of feeling anxious and worried

bahwa mereka bebas untuk bereksperimen

that they don't fit in that one box

dan mengambil alih narasi personal dan identitas mereka.

or that their identity will become irrelevant someday,

that they can feel free to experiment

Saya juga berharap mereka akan menggunakan gabungan unik dari

and to take control of their personal narrative and identity.

nilai, bahasa, budaya, dan keterampilan mereka

I also hope that they will use their unique combination

untuk membantu menciptakan dunia

di mana identitas tidak lagi digunakan untuk mengasingkan yang terlihat berbeda,

of values and languages and cultures and skills

namun sebaliknya, menyatukan banyak orang.

to help create a world

where identities are no longer used to alienate what looks different,

Dan yang paling penting, saya berharap mereka menemukan kegembiraan besar

dalam melalui wilayah yang belum dipetakan,

but rather, to bring together people.

And most importantly, I really hope that they find tremendous joy

karena saya pernah mengalaminya.

in going through these uncharted territories,

Sekarang, soal nenek saya,

pesan terakhirnya juga menjadi pelajaran terakhirnya untuk saya.

because I know I have.

Ternyata semua ini bukan tentang kembali ke Korea

Now, as for my grandmother,

her last wish was also her last lesson to me.

dan dikuburkan di sana.

Ini semua soal dimakamkan di samping putranya,

It turns out that it was never about going back to Korea

yang sudah lama tiada sebelum ia pindah ke Argentina.

and being buried there.

It was about resting next to her son,

Yang terpenting baginya bukanlah samudera

who had died long before she moved to Argentina.

yang membelah dunia lama dan barunya;

What mattered to her was not the ocean

baginya adalah menemukan landasan bersama.

that divided her past and new world;

Terima kasih.

(Tepuk tangan)

it was about finding common ground.

Thank you.

(Applause)