Week 2 – Public Speaking & Gender (my favorite topic!)

What an amazing week! Lots of things have happened whenever I get a 5-day (Buddhist Lent) holiday! If I didn’t enroll Thammasat University at the moment, I would be preparing to ordain as a monk in Plum Village in Pak Chong, Korat, my hometown. I’ve always wanted to become a Buddhist monk someday but I never really got the chance since I was female. I still want to ordain but maybe after graduating first.

Gender Studies

Speaking about ‘Gender’, this week I finally got to meet the only female professor (besides the dean) in our faculty. It’s totally shocking to learn that AJ Piya is the only female professor here. I had all kinds of questions up in my head. AJ Piya also interviewed me during the scholarship round via the Zoom program. I was excited to see her in a real person. It was so hilarious when my classmates introduces ourselves to her and we said like “I met you in the interview” or “We haven’t met in the interview”.

I felt quite intimidated by her because I’m quite anxious around people who are too confident or have a boss-like vibe. This is my personal issue and trauma that is a process ongoing in my life. Above all of this, development in the gender perspective was the topic that I was most confident about; listening, talking, and explaining to my peers about the ‘Gender bread Person’ and the stereotype of man and woman that our society perceived. I’m thankful for AJ Ouyporn Khuankaew of the IWP (International Women’s Partnership for Peace and Justice) course on Gender Equality and Empowerment I joined every year to be re-energized and connect with mother nature and help save my life from dark thoughts.

I really enjoyed public speaking. I look forward to practicing speaking and becoming more confident in my own skin since I never felt 100% confident speaking in public before. It was so terrifying back in the days that I still lived in a woman's body. I slowly gained confident and felt safe enough to even speak out loud in only the past few years after my voice got deeper from testosterones.

Public Speaking

The public speaking course would help me a lot. Somehow I like AJ Paul the most because he feels inviting, feels familiar, and has two young kids! I can picture myself becoming a dad now. I always loved children and recently the thought of becoming a parent and raising up children has stroked me and is my current motivation for living and to earn a living. That is to have and build a family of love and peace. I never thought this dream would become true at all. I might actually become a single dad if I don’t have a partner at that time. Hmmm

Reunion & Holiday

Wednesday was Asalaha Puja Day or the day that the Buddha told about the middle path for the first time to the 5 disciples. This year I went to ALT’s Homecoming reunion at INEB’s office. I was very happy that day because I got to meet friends I haven’t seen in years and meet our teachers too. We then started an alumni club that will meet everyone to learn something more relevant to life.

Thursday and Friday I worked on the SPPC Group project with my group mates. I also went for dinner Mexican food with a Taiwanese-American friend who graduate from Brown University. This is the first time I learned that Brown has an ‘Open Curriculum’ module. It’s very interesting for me because students could design and choose what they would like to year each semester and design their own major later. At most universities, students must complete a set of core courses. At Brown, our students develop a personalized course of study — they have greater freedom to study what they choose and the flexibility to discover what they love.

Saturday was my special celebration day. A professor from Mahidol University asked me to be a speaker about transmen and the queer movement in Thailand in a 1-day workshop on ‘Meditative Listening’. I told my story of discovering myself, transitioning from female to male, the gender equality movement, and my dreams and struggles as an LGBT activist. I had to tell the same story for 3 rounds (4 people each round) and it took 50 minutes for each round. At the end of the day I was so happy and hopeful and I sold 8 of my books. Hooo Raaayyy!

#gssecohort9 #schoolofglobalstudies #perrysjourney #thammasatuniversity