About Me — Odette Marie
I quit my job at the space agency, went corporate, focused on powerbuilding, and here’s what I learned.
Six years ago, I assisted the birth of a million giant clams on my birthday, and in the same year, I found myself holding a GPS unit, walking the perimeter of a rice field.
This is how I started my professional career after earning a marine biology degree in grad school and participating in several fieldworks that felt like fulfilling a childhood Nat Geo dream, where I took photos of damaged corals, and counted giant clam juveniles like a pro.
Then I realized that learning about a warming planet is becoming a “hot topic” (literally and figuratively) and everyone seems to be on board in mitigating it.
So I went from zooming in to zooming out — studying how a warming planet affects the future of giant clams on the ground to looking up and observing the warming planet from space. This pivotal moment catapulted me into joining our space agency, which shaped my late 20's and my views about how the world works.
A career shift and a mindset shift
As you can already tell, I am a marine biology degree holder who studied climate change impacts on clams, and eventually, on agriculture. A foot in the door in research using satellite data allowed me to fully immerse myself in taking part in establishing the country’s space agency.
Charles Dickens once wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”. Indeed, it was a career- and life-defining moment for me, as I became part of the pioneering team of the agency. Every organization at its infancy goes through growing pains and I was in the middle of it.
This time, equipped with the technical skills and supervising skills, I dedicated more than 2 years to help establish the first space science programs in the country and learn from one of the best people in the field. It was the perfect training ground for an early stage researcher like me, as I work with some of the best engineers and scientists under one roof.
It was a purposeful work that kept me awake at night. It taught me that being late to the party is beneficial as long as the night is still young. That is how nascent space agencies thrive — leveraging on previous efforts and collaborating with established ones while the industry is still growing and the opportunities are almost infinite. After all, we are entering the New Space Age — the age of space travel, space exploration, and space democratization.
And just like any organization and individual, we go through phases as our values evolve. I decided to step outside my comfort zone and look beyond.
The value of synergy
I was right when I realized six years ago that global warming is a hot topic and is becoming a hotter topic up to this day as our planet is no longer warming, but slowly boiling.
Climate change keeps everyone on their toes, especially the corporate.
With the mounting pressure coming from all angles, from every stakeholder, investors, regulators, the government, the public, you name it — the polluters would eventually sit down and negotiate. Keywords such as “sustainability” and “risk management” have been in the corporate vernacular lately and as frustrating as it gets, some are still using the approach solely for profits instead of directly addressing the problems, while some are willing to work on doing it “cleanly”.
But the value of synergy is finally moving the needle, even for a little bit. Every sector is finally cooperating or at least talking to each other. Amidst all this, I’d like to keep my hopes up and find that sweet spot while being realistic about my role to the world and to my self. Which brings me to…
Breaking the stereotype — how a researcher and a newbie powerbuilder made personal development her business
One thing I learned from seeing how scientists work and encountering them in different fields is that they are known for making their life’s work their only life’s work. How else are you going to excel in your field if you are not laser-focused? Sadly, the idea of adding value is justified by all the toxic productivity and it is worn as a badge of honor.
I’m here to break the chain and decide to not wear the badge for my generation’s sake. The idea of “work-life balance” appears to be a generational thing, as Boomers struggle to unlearn the traditional ways of working while the effects of it are still being felt by Millenials and the younger generations in the workforce.
As a Millenial, I got time. I got time to change my course and steer my wheel to the direction of sustainable and healthy choices, while aligning my life decisions with my values.
This is where I want to tell my story.
Carrying with me the experience from academia, government, and corporate, and realizing that’s not all there is to it.
I want to share some insights about how I developed my discipline through fitness and meditation while figuring out my career trajectory. Hint: it starts by not doing anything.
Everything changes when you stop justifying your worth and value.
I will talk about how I started everything from scratch, learned about the importance of structure and routine, and share some tips on how self-awareness is key to an enlightening journey, wherever you’re at in life.
After all, we can only reveal what has been already inside us all along. So let’s build a community where we enjoy seeing other people enjoy themselves, one story at a time.
