Celebrating the HAPI Woman, Pt. 2:  Madelyn Gauna: Self Love

By Donna T. Darantinao
HAPI Youth Ambassador

Unrelenting. Unapologetic. Unwavering.

To her, self-love is the key to various doors of life. If you cannot love yourself first, you tend to look for it in every corner of life and end up finding something else. So, as she pursues the journey of mastering her fate as a woman, she is prepared for whatever people will say while she decides to be whatever and whoever she wants to become.

Despite the struggles of defining herself as a woman in our society, she believes that one has to keep pushing through these battles and to continue loving themselves.

“Love yourself enough to feed yourself a nice and healthy meal. Love yourself enough to provide yourself a nice sleep at night. Love yourself enough to take care of your own body. Love yourself enough to appreciate who you are physically and mentally. Love yourself enough to love how you look regardless of your flaws. Love yourself enough to lift yourself up whenever you fall on the ground. Love yourself enough to give yourself only what you deserve and nothing less. Love yourself enough to heal all the pain in your past. Love yourself enough to accept and be responsible with the fact that you may or may not be as privileged as others around you,” she explained.

But most importantly, she emphasized that a woman must love herself enough to become open of the multiple possibilities of who she can be. Although there will be those moments where she would feel weak and incapable, she just has to constantly remind herself that we should be treated and considered as an equally capable colleague as any other person and/or gender.

“Leading for me is not a competition to be won, it’s an opportunity to set as a good example for the rest of the group. I believe everyone, regardless of their gender, is different in his or her own ways. It is simply up to us whether we can or cannot accept that fact. Anyone can be a leader because anyone can set as an example. It will just depend whether you are the right and empathetic one. In my case, I just try my best to be that kind of example,” she said.

Being a woman never hindered her from becoming what she is today, instead, it just pushed her even more to defend whatever causes and advocacies she believes in. She may be young but she definitely isn’t going last. Graduating her Senior High School years with high honors, she is relentless when it comes to self-discovery and exploration of the world.

Currently, she formerly was in South Korea but regardless of the distance from the Philippines, she is still an active contributing element to different organizations in the country. She has been with HAPI since 2017 and has participated with different state university organizations particularly SALiGAN sa CSSP and Rise for Education, UP Diliman. Now that she is back in the Philippines, who knows what power she has in store!

She also considers herself a wanderer— “A young woman full of questions and burden who has yet a bunch to learn, achieve, and contribute to the world.”

Currently, she is one of the HAPI Youth Associates and the current Social Media Manager of HAPI’s Youth Sector who actively participates in different campaigns of various social issues faced in the country.

“Being given the opportunity and choosing to become someone who does something, even just a tiny bit of act for humanism is what makes me a HAPI woman!” she furthered.

Indeed, Madelyne Gauna is that relentless HAPI woman.

This feature is a part of a trilogy called, “Celebrating the HAPI Woman” in recognition of women all over the world regardless of color, race, nationality, or beliefs. We are all one for humanity.