Cover Photo by Oleg Magni on Pexels
Here’s to the mothers, the wives, the girlfriends, the sisters and the friends.
On this International Women’s Day, I want to thank you for everything you have done for us.
I’m not one to wait for an occasion to show gratitude towards anyone, but today is a special day and we should celebrate it.
For those who don’t know, International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.
It makes me sad that even to this day, gender parity remains a topic we need to talk about.
At Work
My company, Power Level Studios (PLS), is split evenly in terms of gender. That wasn’t necessarily on purpose. It’s not something I think about. When an applicant sends their resume over, I certainly don’t discern the gender.
PLS Team and Contributors
Is the person fit for the job or not?
…
End of discussion.
But you know what? I’m happy that the team is split evenly. The women in my team are badass. Two of them have children and work from home to take care of them while working.
How many men do that?
I’m happy with the distribution at PLS because, in the video games industry, there are a lot more men. It’s an intimidating environment. My team is better for it.
So, to all the women at PLS, I tell you all the time but it bears repeating: “Thank you for your hard work!”
At Home
I know my wife, Audrey, doesn’t want me to write about her, but I can’t help it. She’s a real badass, that one!
Everyone is inspired by her. Myself certainly included.
I’ll keep this brief:
She started the nursing profession at 20 years old and went directly to arguably the hardest department at the hospital: emergency;
She helped Sundara grow their network of partners, leading to distributing soap to hundreds of thousands of people with no access to clean soap and providing jobs to women who had a hard time finding one;
She helped bring awareness about menstrual health hygiene for girls in India;
She helped a community of 4,000 people in Uganda who didn’t have access to clean water. Thanks to her efforts, enough money was raised to build a borehole well, with the help of Drink Local Drink Tap;
She went across Central African Republic with Doctors Without Borders, and with her team, they vaccinated over 40,000 children;
And as of today, she is a mentor for a program called Girlz, FTW. Her mentee is lucky to have her;
and many more things.
How badass is all that?
Heck, when she was just a kid, she would decide to donate her Christmas gift to other children in need. Which kid does that?
She empowers women and writes badass things like this:
She never stops. She never gives up.
I swear I would never have accomplished much in life if it wasn’t for her.
We met when I was 17 years old. That’s almost half my life ago now.
I was just a regular kid playing video games on my couch and not having incredible ambition.
She was a high achieving student with high ambitions of becoming a nurse. She was always caring. For everyone.
Her determination and quest for personal achievement rubbed off on me.
And for that, I thank her.
“Thank you for being my wife and being the most badass girl I know. Keep inspiring other people, and especially women whose environment doesn’t allow them to thrive.”
Growing Up
It’s not the first time I write about my mom. Along with Audrey, she’s the hardest working person I know.
She has raised me and my three brothers on her own, and even though we were very poor, we always had food on our table.
Frankly, to this day I still don’t comprehend how she did it. I mean, coping with the situation must have been incredibly hard.
Some parents give up. She never did. She always believed in us and was always encouraging us to do what we wanted to do in life.
Thanks to her, I’m the hard-working person that I am today. I’m persistent and never give up on my dreams.
And for that, “I thank you, mom!”
To All The Badass Women In Our Lives
So join me in thanking the badass women in your life.
Do it, not because today is a special day, but because you recognize the things they do for you. Do it every month, every week, every day.
Thank them. They deserve it.
So together, let’s make gender parity a reality.
Let’s #PressforProgress!
We can do this!
Thanks for reading! :)