About: Nicole Wang Nii Qher, 23. Born on 02/02/1998, Malaysia.
Program: Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work
Note: If you’re one who appreciates a thorough and explicit overview, kindly begin from the start, I promise you’ll develop a much fuller understanding of my character. However, if you’re feeling restless which is understandable, feel free to scroll to Chapter 2; you’ll also find my SWOT analysis at the end of the page.
An Unconventional Motivation Letter Circa 2021
Bridging The Gap Between All Things Creative And Humane.
Unfurling The Multiplicity of Self-States That Lie Beyond Verbal Communication; Between Patience, Modesty, And Art.
Intro
This letter suggests more than a sales pitch or a cramped-up version of all inspirational quotes into one. It aims to take you into an intimate territory of Nicole’s mind.
Chapter 1
Under the Limelight:
Substance Abuse, Alienation, and All The Psychedelic Feels (i.e. Ambient, Intense Emotion)
It’s a collective memory, the 80s Hong Kong era was a favorite for many Asians in general, typically the Chinese community, including me. During my formative years in which my fantasies ran wild, I was deeply obsessed with nostalgia and attuned to retro patterns and color schemes—a sentiment heightened especially by the Hong Kong cinema dominated by the directors of the Second New Wave.
There was Kowloon at twilight. Decorated with neon signs in which letters stand out in garish
colors, taking on a kaleidoscopic and psychedelic appearance. The characters are bathed in blue, lonely in a crowd and trapped in the absurdity of chaos, and mutilated either by love or no love.
Finally, these film scenes are memorable for their usage of copious cigarettes, a single element that pervades everything else.
I was drenched in the languid sensuality of this hypnotic style, the love affair films had with tobacco imagery. Also, with a timeless aesthetic, smoke puffs are romanticized and overdone until the very end. The smoking culture in the entertainment media is almost synonymous with the rock ‘n roll lifestyle, especially during the 60s. Complex and intertwined with the espoused use of hallucinogenic drugs by hard-living characters, often in an exploitative fashion.
You could probably tell that one of the social work niches I’m determined to pursue is mental health and substance abuse because the topic I put forth above shed some light on it, and a lot more in the following shared information.
1.1 On Rose Colored Glasses, Paradoxes, and Sustainable Living
We have the mystique glitz dancing in our heads, but with consequences in reality that hold no allure. To this day, I still adore these films or entertainment products that encapsulate the sophisticated, dark, and overcast demeanor in intricate human behavioral patterns. I could appreciate them solely for their sensory-emotional values brought by the creator’s captivating execution.
On a fortunate level, we question and think about what we see or love because the human mind is made up of convoluted machinery parts, helping us to navigate life in a world fleeting across paradoxes. The psychedelic pop culture was one of my first gateways into understanding that there’s only so much miserable amount of good we could embrace and live with, without falling into a deep state of conforming to addictive patterns. An emotional connection is bearable so long as it’s accompanied by a decent amount of rationality and without the use of rose-colored glasses. But to many others, what if it falls short?
Chapter 2
Social Work and Me
How I Associate Myself With Social Work Based On What I Have Within Me
Determinedly, I concern myself with egalitarianism and the diverse intricacies of human behavior, as well as its impact on society on the whole. As long as there are humans, problems never go away.
It’s uncanny how the mind can be a place of happiness and imagination, yet at the same time, the hardest prison one could escape from. In a society that’s in a constant battle with an empathy deficit, when too many people’s days are lost to agitation, worry, stress, and discord, I would like to think that I’m able to bring something of value to the table; not a placebo, but a solid, constantly evolving organic soothing energy; in ways that are practical, constructive, and empathetic to the ones who need it the most, without the current state of convictions—being dictated by implicit biases and mind chatters—leaving no space for those around to feel seen and heard.
There are psychological blocks that could seem hard to regulate, and I’ve learned that hope is essential for survival. Why does hope matter? This is what people require exactly to create self-worth and the will to keep living on this planet. These qualities are no luxuries, they can save lives.
2.1 Social Work and Me: On Philosophical and Creativity
Coupled with elusive memories, there are destructive tendencies easily triggered lying around in dark corners, and in paralytic rhythm.
Quietly forceful and highly intuitive about people, my versatile personality type is built on 4 major components that I believe are in resonance with the nuance of Social Work, and I’m introducing you to the first two: Philosophical and Creativity.
We are not immune to life struggles. I endeavor to detect unsustainable living trends by way of recognizing patterns that rely on an open mind and a continual resistance to jumping to conclusions. I would like to equip myself with the necessary tools needed in this journey as I’m determined to pursue my studies further in the discipline of social work and human rights.
With a mix of creativity in a philosophical and collected nature, I believe these qualities in me facilitate imaginative and innovative problem-solving in communities. I aim to be an ally to people by providing support in ways that could eventually inspire people to see the value in self-reliance during moments of adversity, and when low dips are saturated with powerlessness in day-to-day humdrum dynamics.
On the other hand, I don’t uphold the idea that everyone should be forcing themselves to put a positive spin on all experiences, or conforming to the excessive and ineffective
over-generalization of elated exuberance despite emotional pain or gravity of the situation, namely, toxic positivity, because that’s not what empathy means.
2.2 Social Work and Me: On Resilience and Empathy
Why is this thing so painful, so confusing, and so dangerously vague? And what is that thing?
I’m not afraid of facing the nuances of the most undesirable aspects of humans’ inner demons, or the grim actualities of an anxiety-inducing occurrence. I’m definitely not invulnerable to fear, anxiety, insecurity, and despair, I rely on coping mechanisms just like everyone else. However, I do take more care to select coping strategies that don’t mess with the accuracy of my judgment whenever necessary. I believe in seeing things as they are, not as I wish they were, by removing myself from perfect snapshots and idealized highlights reels, because I don’t identify with an overly idyllic state of mind.
In addition, I recognize the importance to balance out visualizations of any kind with realistic depictions of suffering and life. For instance, poison and addiction are widespread among the complexities of the human’s entirety, including behavior and thought systems. The manic reliance on something, anything, to keep the dark and unsettling thoughts at bay, or the desire to avoid encountering the contents of the mind, is, to me, the normality of being.
Separately, pervasive across the Asian social climate, a typical submissive culture is deeply ingrained in many conventional households; pervasive in many other parts of the world, it unleashes passivity in the acquisition of knowledge and internalized oppression of sorts. A monotonous group-think net looms the insidiousness of rotten bigotry, a core that’s perished in places.
With many things in life that slip easily into polarizing, uncontrollable directions, I stay clear with Resilience and Empathy, the 2 remaining components that constitute the fundamental of my personality; not because I’m unbreakable nor a mastermind with top-notch organizing skills with impeccable self-control, but because these made a combination of epiphanic energies that support me to navigate life on this planet, along with the practice of the golden mean philosophy, or Zhōng Yōng Zhī Dào (i.e.中庸之道)
The result is a totality of every little conscious choice I continuously make along the way. I hope you’ll notice how significantly inclined I am towards the pursuit of approaching social work in a holistic lens with the cultivation of fluidity in life while finding me the right candidate for the Social Work program as you take a glimpse into the relevant context of my thoughts.
Now, let’s take a closer look at my academic and work experiences, so you could take a glance at where my life has been. By the way, I’m going to offer information that’s not included in my CV.
Chapter 3
An Overview: Background and Work Experiences
My birth background consists of emotionally immature parents who aren’t compatible with each other on many levels. There was a figure who was emotionally inhibited, filled with ignorance, and had slipped into the subconscious addictive mentality, yearning to see closed ones in deep shame for unfathomable reasons, while another figure was at one point trying to have life figured out and thus lack the emotional capacity to nurture the young children with adequate love, care, and support.
Fast-forward to 2013, I landed my first job in a steak house at the age of 15, a wishful goal that had long been manifested. A simple yet revelatory moment came when I figured out the only way to live independently in the first place was to secure a job, so I could perhaps leave the damaging, unsupportive environment as quickly as I was able to which had been detrimental to my young developing cognitive state and mental health at that time. I just needed to do it, come hell or high water.
I was also self-funding my tuition fees of the Chinese private high school I went to whilst working as a steak house waitress; studying from 8 am to 3 pm, and working from 7 pm to 11 pm. It’s the same old story.
Long story short, my earlier days from 2013 to 2016 were saturated with work shift schedules spinning around the F & B industry and retail businesses. I worked in restaurants, cafés, bar lounges as a waitress, barista, and cashier, and also as a shop assistant to boutiques. On the other hand, my most memorable moments in high school in terms of academic achievements were winning the 1st prize and other prizes in Chinese essay writing competitions because I was a writer soul at heart and I expressed the bewildering aspects of my chain of thoughts creatively through words while having a good grasp on the language.
3.1 My Way of Exploring the Complex Society: Deep Dive Into Language and Culture
Covering Mandarin, English, Cantonese, and Malay, I’ve been multilingual ever since I was a little girl. The experience of learning languages has given me a more holistic grasp of their social and emotional contexts. While the view of the world is shaped by the language we use, I believe a multilingual experience inspires solidarity, tolerance, and understanding. This has contributed positively to my working experiences while dealing with people from all walks of life and backgrounds.
In 2018, I did my diploma internship as a lifestyle journalist in one of the country’s oldest Chinese-language news publishing companies, namely Nanyang Business Daily. With a keen interest in humanism and languages, a good grasp of narrative coupled with an incisiveness in capturing details, I’ve since explored cultures and humanities through growing beyond my writing legacy, done with extensive research passionately.
3.2 On Being a Counselor and a Volunteer
In college, I wrote Chinese prose and poems dedicated to an indie zine, sparking creative
juices and letting them flow at an erratic speed. On the other hand, in line with the college’s initiative to provide students with adequate emotional support, I became a trained peer counselor, with a mere wish to ameliorate moments of anguish within students, triggered by a perplexed and distraught inner state of mind.
Will ordeals ever be shed? I believe there’s a lot of work to be done in breaking the vicious cycle of prejudice and inaction, and I’m certain that I want to be part of the group that endeavors in raising every little inch of awareness in emotional hygiene. I keep one thing in mind, that is, there’s a difference between influencing and driving an agenda, and people respect a sincere attempt at influence and resent being patronized and manipulated.
Furthermore, in a“Women Empowerment” voluntary project hosted by AIESEC Sri Lanka, I devoted my time to raising awareness and sharing information relating to gender equality and sexual liberation to young women in local high schools who like many
others, including myself, have endured and seen enough consequences brought by the lack of sexual health education and resources.
I then took the opportunity to work as a research assistant at Inform Human Rights Documentation Centre during my remaining time in Sri Lanka. I was exposed to and learned about specific major prison problems and dire conditions faced by inmates such as prison overcrowding, suicide, exacerbated health problems, grave hygiene conditions, and more. Documenting, discovering research studies, and interviewing human rights activists were part of my job scope.
3.3 On Being a Versatile Writer
Continuing my quest of probing into the realm of humanities from a critical perspective with an open mind down the road, over the last 2 years, I paved my way to enhancing copious skills of content creation and written communication, endeavoring to connect with people through a myriad of both digital and printing platforms.
Making full use of my writing and language capabilities, I end up holding various writing positions including Harper’s Bazaar Malaysia, a starting point where I embrace the unknown, stirring ideas by tuning into runway and designer’s collections, lifestyle and entertainment, arts and culture, and eventually global issues and social crisis; Naluri Hidup, a place I associate myself closely with the intensive scientific research studies of brain science, cognitive psychology, and its relationship with chronic diseases, all while crafting a delicate, nurturing tone to the audience to make mental health both accessible, striving to shatter and unwire chains of ignorance and misinformation that circulate the society.
Time and again, elements of controversial and interactive were contagious in my experience, but I believe all of which is what it takes to spark real conversations—something that only happens when people begin to engage and think.
As I engage with a plethora of subjects, I learn deliberately to tackle and examine issues under a holistic framework. In that regard, whether through a disruptive approach or appreciating the analytic process of investigating concepts and problems from multiple angles and perspectives, I take pride and am driven to make full use of dynamic thinking to apply different semiotic resources to a problem if that’s going to stimulate a fuller understanding.
Chapter 4
On Engaging with The Universe
Every development of progress, transformation, and enlightenment ensues where conflicts and dissonance take place. I write and associate the entirety of my mind and soul with the subject, even if that means putting myself into a state of disorientation, irritability, and everything else that’s at the opposite end of comfort most of the time, which is, to me, a condition and normality I’m able to make peace with because I permit myself to be free. I truly believe my experiences and exposure to different realms have equipped me with all that’s needed to be in the Social Work program.
To me, it’s the course of writhing in agony, getting closer and closer each day to the attributes of different forms of distress, and finally establishing a way that works for me to engage in writings on a deeper level after maneuvering through moments of head-fogs, incubation, and illumination. From every little indent in the sand to every chirp in the woods, I cling to learn and read about them, there’s just constant information flowing in from all sides, imbued with the essence of grounded elements and accelerated expansion leaking from the mysterious dark energy of the universe.
Some remain quiet for long periods; others fire rapidly in short bursts before switching off. I believe in a grandeur state, the brain shows more activity in regions that usually flicker into life whenever we think closely about every connection and reflection we’re bound to form.
Chapter 5
Ending: Expression Matters
To get a message across and to look for common ground, “we must first speak in a language that the people understand,” Lin Liqing writes in his book, Workers.
Penetrating the multi-faceted life of the voiceless and the underprivileged, the Taiwanese author and engineer delve into the topic of social inequality and discrimination, looking from the perspectives of people in the building sites who toil in harsh conditions, unprotected by labor laws, and whose rights are sunk into oblivion, unseen by the ones in power. Class rigidity divides people, and in a people-driven field like Social Work, I think this quote perfectly applies to all instances that are concerned about bridging the gap between people.
Otherwise, messages are just unintelligible whispers, hindering the application of a decode function right from the start.
5.1 A Message to You and SWOT Analysis
To put it plainly, applying for Social Work makes complete sense to me. I believe in building genuine connections, not barriers, as well as fighting for the underdog. I want my future to be closely associated with helping and supporting the vulnerable while shattering stigmas surrounding the marginalized.
To try and put it more explicitly, I present to you my flow of ideas and associations with the effort of connecting them together. Though flawed, they’re now conjured up in the previous paragraphs for your perusal, all coming from a place of originality.
The choice is now in your hands. Thank you.
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