A letter to my 15-year old self

Dear Ani,

I am not here to tell you what will happen in your future. I am here to be next to you at the time of your life when you are going through many unknowns.

You are experiencing a lot of doubts about yourself and a lot of emotions about life. You are uncertain of what will happen in future.

I want to tell you one thing: your biggest dream will come true. That thing that you keep praying about will happen even if you can hardly believe it…very soon, just be patient and wait a couple of years.

We remember and we demand!

Making my speech at the Armenian Genocide commemoration night in Sydney (2015)

April 24th, 1915, is etched as one of the darkest days in humanity…

Every year on April 24, I get shivers…thinking of innocent men, women, and children whose lives were destroyed by the atrocities of Ottoman Empire 101 years ago. One and a half million lives…and their generations were destroyed.

April 24 is the remembrance day of the Armenian Genocide, a historical fact that Turkey, unfortunately, continues to deny. Imagine Germany claiming that Holocaust never happened? It is absurd, isn’t it?

In fact, Adolf Hitler cynically used this phrase to justify his horrendous acts:

Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?

Are you in peace with criticism?

We need to learn to be imperfect…we need to allow ourselves room for improvement, for mistakes, for wrongdoings. We need to make peace with our imperfection because being a perfectionist in this imperfect world is a misery…

If you are a perfectionist you are likely to agree that we have a strong desire to be perfect and do everything 100%. What I am interested here is the reason…Why is this the case and why do we praise ourselves for being perfectionists? Why do we feel not fully comfortable with being half-good at something?