We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Karen Arango. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Karen below.
Hi Karen, so excited to have you with us today and we are really interested in hearing your thoughts about how folks can develop their empathy? In our experience, most folks want to be empathic towards others, but in a world where we are often only surrounded by people who are very similar to us, it can sometimes be a challenge to develop empathy for others who might not be as similar to us. Any thoughts or advice?
I was born in Colombia during the time of the drug wars, and Medellin, the city where I lived, was where Pablo Escobar lived. I lived one street away from a building he owned. My mom told me that as bombs would go off around the city, as the police were trying to capture Pablo, the sound was loud, and our apartment windows would shake, and I would cry. I was just a baby.
When I was a few years older, I remember I would have to miss school due to there being mass kidnappings during the day around the city, so we couldn’t risk going out. Some days, I would take the school bus to go back home after school. I remember seeing 6- and 7-year-old kids on the streets, their clothes dirty, standing around with their families, begging for money. I remember making eye contact with one of them; it was a girl around my, but in a completely different reality from the one I was living.
At nine years old, we moved to the United States. Due to the insecurity in the city we lived in, without a clue of how to speak the language or how the system worked. We struggled, our family broke apart, my parents divorced. My mom struggled to make ends meet. She had to borrow money from friends to pay for rent, she worked many jobs in cleaning.
The reason why I am telling you this story, is because there were several things that I believe helped me develop empathy. One was seeing the need in my country and feeling the frustration of not being able to do anything about it. Second, my experience immigrating to this country, and the struggles we went through in the first years living here.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I call myself a visual journalist. I use photography and video to tell stories for non-profits around the cities I live in, Sarasota and Bradenton. I have my own photography and videography business, and I’ve been dedicated to this for about seven years now. In addition to working with non-profits, I also take photos of families, elopements, I work with other companies to take headshots of their staff, etc.
I work in the non-profit and for-profit world. It’s the perfect balance for me, to do my artistic work with a purpose and make ends meet. Lastly, during my free time I like to work on my own projects, for example, in 2021 my fiancé and I went to Uganda to volunteer at a soccer academy called El Cambio Academy. I filmed a documentary to gift the academy. I used a version of the documentary called, OKUTEEBA, to raise money with the help of a wonderful co-producer, Shannon Rohrer-Phillips, for another school in Uganda, Far Away Friends, so they could have a girls’ soccer program.
In conclusion, my work is mainly focused on giving a voice to those in need and using my craft to provide awareness and collaborate with other organizations to create a positive impact in my community and anywhere, really.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The three qualities that have been most impactful in my journey would be kindness, hard-work, and patience. I’ve always been a big believer that if we do things with a good intention and positive attitude, we can make it work. We need to work for what we want, anything takes work and dedication, and if we want something enough, we will work hard enough make it happen. Also, within that I think education is very important. No matter how much we know, there is always room for improvement, so we must stay curious and interested in learning and becoming better. Lastly, patience is a great skill to have, things just don’t always happen when we expect them to or when we want. We can work toward a dream or a goal, but we also must be patient and know that it will work out somehow. The outcome might be different, and if we are open to that, we will accomplish it.
What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?
The biggest area of growth or improvement in the last year for me would be on a personal level, which has also influenced my career and how I work. In the last year, I’ve been working a lot on my physical and mental health, I even had a photography exhibition about mental health in the Hispanic community in April this year. To be specific, one of the most important things I have learned is to have boundaries.
I used to be the person that was always willing to do what others wanted me to do, or I would sacrifice my interests and time for others, all the time. I think I was almost non-existent in my opinions and what I wanted. I have learned that it’s okay to say no to jobs I do not want to do or feel uncomfortable doing. I also realized that I didn’t have to be available all the time for my clients, they didn’t manage my schedule, I did. If that meant I would lose some work opportunities, that was okay, I needed to make time for myself. I basically learned that I am important as well. What I want and how I feel also matters.
Applying this into my life has given me more self-confidence, it has helped me be better in my career, it has helped me enjoy doing my creative work even more than before, and I am happier.
Contact Info:
- Website: karenarango.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/karenaarangor
- Other: okuteeba.com
Image Credits
Karen’s Portrait: Photo by Yana Parker
