Author Archives: danicarolina95

What is invisible but essential about YOU? or ESADE? or Barcelona?

My extensive backpacking experience in over 30 countries can be a good topic to share. Growing up, I had never had the opportunity to travel abroad as my parents were not financially well-off. However, as a university student, I embarked on my first overseas journey, travelling around South India for two months by local bus, with the money I had saved from working part-time at a bar. This experience led me to explore even more countries. I am a holder of a Laotian elephant rider’s license, have jumped into an icy lake in Moscow, swam with wild whale sharks in the Pacific Ocean, taken a shower naked with well water in the depths of the jungle with locals, and did a lot more. These experiences were particularly special to me as I could speak no other language than Japanese for the entire time. Interacting and communicating with locals beyond the language barrier, despite the challenge, was fun like nothing else, and greatly enriched my humanity. Embracing and appreciating other cultures also helped me to better appreciate and understand my own culture as a Japanese.

When I became a mother, I thought my days of adventure were behind me, but I still regretted not being able to engage in deep conversations with people from around the world. So, I made up my mind to study English seriously during maternity leave. I learned vocabulary from NETFLIX during breastfeeding time and practised speaking to my baby, who was patient with mistakes and the same stories. As a result, we both were able to speak English together. This ultimately led me to pursue an MBA, in one of the most globally diverse settings in the world. For me, an MBA program represents the realization of a dream, despite my lack of overseas experience and language skills, but have always yearned to explore the world. And I am excited to see what other dreams and aspirations will come to fruition from here.

Wishing you all a successful and fruitful MBA journey!

What is invisible but essential about YOU? or ESADE? or Barcelona?

“One invisible but essential fact about me is that I have deep passion for mountain sports, particularly mountaineering. Not only do I derive a great deal of happiness and achievement from this sport, but I have found it to be extremely humbling and an excellent form of character building.

What started as out as a small hike up a hill in Malaysia developed into a full-blown desire to climb mountains that were bigger, higher and more challenging. At fourteen years old, I became the youngest Singaporean (a much younger Singaporean would take this title years later!) to summit Mount Kilimanjaro and in 2018, I would go on to summit Mount Elbrus in Russia. After the MBA, I aim to complete the seven summit challenge which entails climbing the highest mountain on each continent (I have five left).

I’d like to share three lessons that I have kept from my climbing endeavors over the last fifteen years.

1) You win some, you lose some. Despite the best preparation, equipment, and planning, there will always be factors outside of your control in the mountains. The weather might decide to turn bad, forcing you to abandon a summit attempt weeks in the making. The same goes for the rest of life, you are going to lose some battles; what matters is that you shrug it off quickly, avoid the blame game, and move on to the next battle.

2) This too shall pass. Every emotion – the highest of highs and lowest of lows – passes in time. Succeeding in a climb that took months of preparation feels great for a few days before the euphoria passes, and similarly, the disappointment of failing to summit a mountain passes quickly. Remember that all moments in life, both happy and sad, will eventually pass. Stay humble in your victories and stay positive in your defeats.

3) Mind over matter. While everyone has a physical limit, our brains are programmed to protect us and often cause us to think that we are at our limits when in fact, we can push much further. Summit days on mountains are often extremely long and it is common for climbers to reach a point where one’s mind becomes the biggest enemy; an inner voice telling you to give up and turn around every minute. The same goes for other aspects of life – take that step and push yourself one step further whenever your mind tells you to give up.”

What is invisible but essential about YOU? or ESADE? or Barcelona?

To answer this question, I would like to start with my early childhood growing up in Norway. 

I grew up with my mother and her female partner in a suburban area in Oslo. This was in the early ’90s and growing up with “two mothers” was quite unusual, I would even say radical. As an adult, I look back on my upbringing and feel a strong sense of privilege having been raised by two strong women. 

I also travelled a lot as a young child. I visited China, Fiji and Australia twice before I was 12 years old and somehow, we never ended up staying in the tourist areas. My mother was always keen on showing me what she thought was the local way of life. So, in Fiji, we visited a local village and met the village chief, and in Beijing, we would get lost in the side streets and visit local artists whom we communicated with using a simple dictionary and hand signals. 

My untraditional upbringing and early childhood travels have made me very open and curious about new cultures. I, therefore, decided to take a leap of faith and move to Harbin in Northern China to study Mandarin once I finished my undergraduate studies in Finance.

I remember Harbin as a melting pot of different cultures. In my language school, half of the class came from Russia and the other half were Korean. I remember being so amazed by Korean mannerisms and especially the tradition of bowing to people older than yourself. It was also my first time interacting with Russians. I remember my Russian classmates as friendly and fun to hang out with. The school also had plenty of exchange students from Africa and I developed close friendships with people from Benin and Zambia. 

Fast forward ten years and I am currently living in Barcelona pursuing an MBA. If you see me in the hallways, you will probably never be able to detect from my appearance any of the diversity I carry with me from my lived experiences. I think this goes for a lot of the people we meet in life. It’s generally quite hard to tell what kind of invisible diversity people carry with them. I, therefore, believe that the best approach is to meet people with genuine openness and curiosity. Be kind to the people around you and dare to include new people in your circles of friends, regardless of where they come from or what they have done in life. 

Best of luck to all of you on your MBA and future endeavours in life!