Beyond the VEP

Being unexpectedly cooped inside the house for months on end can do a lot to a person. For one, I spent the last few months doing a lot of introspecting–I mean, what else am I supposed to do when it seems that the world around me is slowly falling apart? While our country suffers hundreds of preventable deaths daily and while the oppressed fight for their right to simply exist?

More than anything, I keep asking myself what my purpose is. The beautiful thing about MAIP is that it isn’t just a space to build your career, but it’s also a space to build yourself. A few weeks ago, we had the lovely opportunity to attend a workshop about rewriting our bios with the oh-so-beautiful, Jezz Chung.

For starters, Jezz just radiates a type of energy that caresses you and tells you that everything is going to be okay. All jokes aside, Jezz had us create our own personal timelines–key moments in our lives that we think shape who we are. From there, we used our timelines as a blueprint to write our actual bios, complete with an introduction and mission statement. Others shared their own stories while Jezz listened and helped to strengthen them. We finished the workshop by doing a guided meditation that really focused on being present in the moment, and creating this pocket of time as a way of self-care.

I’ve never been a great writer, especially when it comes to writing about myself. But the way Jezz broke everything down made bio writing, something that used to be so intimidating that I’d put off writing it until I absolutely had to, doable. But it wasn’t just the guidance Jezz gave us that gave me confidence. It was the way everyone hung onto every word she spoke. The community that formed beyond the MAIP VEP platform. Many of us are the children of immigrant parents who sacrificed everything to be here and provide for us and being in a space that encouraged us to recognize the key moments that shape us made me feel strangely comforted and connected.

It’s true that the MAIP connection lives beyond the summer internships. With everything being virtual this year, our connection as a cohort is the strongest it’s ever been, and I’m glad to be apart of it.