Keep Calm and Get Cultured

Hi! Look, it's me! Using this blog again! Some life updates for you:

- I am nearing the end of the fall of my senior year, and the word of the day (and every day this semester) is "chaotic." I am busier than I've ever been, but for the best of reasons--we'll get to that in a bit.

- Do Not Go Gentle has been ENTIRELY refurbished and, thanks to a handy workshop from a visiting Wix instructor, your girl is now Premium™ (for the next year, at least). This means that I am officially ~on the Internet~ (yes, I did not realize I technically wasn't before) and now have a domain name of my own: donotgogentle.online! If you put this address in the search bar it will come up, I promise.

- I have taken steps towards "adulthood" in several minuscule ways:

- Learning how to deep clean a bathroom

- Buying almond milk

- Using a Ninja for the first time

- Successfully growing a Chia Pet

- I am on the exec board for William & Mary's Filipino American Student Association (FASA) as one of three Culture Chairs--why three, you ask? The short and sweet answer is that learning about a culture, even if it's your own, is no small task and imparting it to others ("others" being members of FASA and the larger student community) is an even greater responsibility. But why Culture Chair? The long answer is as follows.

Now this may come as a surprise to you, but I love to write. Specifically, I like to write stories--since I was six or seven I would make up countless different plots with casts of eclectic characters (ask me about the hedgehog named Steve). I've always loved the incredible freedom and possibility of writing. But as I've gotten older, I realized that it's one thing to create and imagine without abandon, and another to create and imagine something that can matter to someone more than just yourself. These two things don't have to be separate; and being in FASA has taught me that.

I was, to put it lightly, overwhelmed by FASA in the beginning--so much so that I didn't join until my sophomore year, and even then I remained cautiously in their periphery, ready to slip away in case things got too much to handle. Towards the end of my first semester with them I was told about an event called Culture Night: a show performed, produced and written by members of FASA meant to illustrate a fundamental part of the Filipino/Filipino American experience. It was pitched as a series of contradictions: both the best of times and the worst of times, the most difficult and the most rewarding season in FASA, asking performative talent of people who have mostly never done any sort of theater at all.

A few days ago I filled out a "values bracket" in which I discerned which personal values were most important to me. One that surprised me was "challenge." It is a value I don't think I had (or even considered a value) until I came to college. Despite all the talk about William & Mary's atmosphere of stress and impossibly high, self-imposed standards, what lies at the root of both of those things is a misconstrued application of this word. I myself am guilty of letting challenge negatively affect my mental health and attitudes, but being here has also taught me to pursue positive forms of it. It's hard to pinpoint exactly when I began searching for the uplifting, character-building form of challenge, but I'd say signing up for Culture Night was one of the first efforts.

And boy, was it character-building. Going to rehearsals when I would normally be winding down to sleep; learning movements and styles I had never tried before; getting shin splints from Tinikling (trust me on this one). I would practice a dance five times and get something different wrong each time.

So yes, it was character-building in a sense that it was difficult, but also in the sense that I became better because of it. Even when I was at my most exhausted at those late-night rehearsals, there was never a shortage of jokes and antics to bring my spirits back up. Although the traditional dances could be hard, I thought about how amazing it was that I was actively participating in and learning about my culture, even if it was just a sliver of it. I think the greatest beauty of it was that I wasn't doing it alone. For once, I was not creating something alone. I was laughing, sweating, and sometimes hurting alongside other FASA members, my friends that Culture Night season solidified as a family.

And it was because of Culture Night that I accessed a whole new avenue of stories, ones that centered on being Filipino. Nearly every phone call to my parents since then has included an anecdote about what I learned/am learning from FASA: dances, histories, songs, vocabulary words. I find myself talking about it with my friends outside of FASA, feeding off their curiosity and jumping at the opportunity to offer a new perspective. I am constantly being encouraged and challenged to ask myself how I am connecting with my cultural identity, to the extent of thinking about it aloud in front of others (@ Isang Kuwento 👀). But what makes this all the more special is that I am not only telling stories, but receiving them in return. There is a boundless wealth of memories and narratives from my parents better than any history book could offer. In my most ordinary conversations with my friends from FASA, I learn a little bit more about what "being Filipino" even means (hint: it means a lot of things). In short, being in FASA has built a bridge that has helped me cross boundaries I didn't even know existed.

When I first thought about running for Culture Chair, my head was a flurry of thoughts and emotions. For starters, I wasn't even in the country, but instead scrambling around Europe (it was sometime around that "Interlaken" post, for context). But what stood in the forefront was that old feeling I'd had since childhood: that incredible freedom and possibility that could be before me. Suddenly I was a seven-year-old again, thinking of all the stories I wanted to tell. And I was also me now, age twenty-one, older, wiser, and thinking of what stories needed to be told.

As is evident from this spiel, Culture Night is not a feat that can be achieved alone. When I say it is a team effort, I mean it is a t e a m e f f o r t. I have been #BLESSED with two lovely, talented co-chairs who I couldn't imagine doing any of this without. We have been working together since July to write, cast, and direct the show (is this what they mean by a "triple threat"?). That's even before the two and a half months of rehearsals commence in mid-January. People both in and outside of FASA volunteer to choreograph and teach the dances or rehearse the songs. Members of the org also volunteer their time and effort to act, sing, and dance in the show; many of them are stepping out of their comfort zones to take on these roles, and as someone who has been (and still is) in their shoes, I will be forever grateful.

But there is still another way Culture Night is very much a team effort, and it could include you. You? Yes, you! As a student organization, we do all our own fundraising to cover the costs needed to hold this event. It is with your help that we will be able to not only tell our Filipino story as powerfully as possible, but in a way that will leave a lasting impression on all who attend. Our goal of $2,500 will not just help with props, advertising, and costuming, but it also goes towards our immaculate Filipino dinner reception afterwards (anybody here like lechon???) Any contribution is very much appreciated and will go a long way in making Culture Night one to remember. The more we raise, the bigger and better it will be for everyone: audience and performers alike. And of course, you are more than welcome to experience this memorable night when it finally comes around on March 28!

So what is next spring's Culture Night even going to be about, you ask? Glad you stuck around this long to find out. To put it lightly, many things. Now I can't reveal everything, but I can say that it will be set in the backdrop of a debut, because 18th birthdays are traditionally considered a valuable milestone for Filipino women. But our debutante will be no ordinary debutante; she has decided not to go to college, and hasn't broken the news to her mom just yet. And of course, it wouldn't be a coming-of-age story without a little bit of romance sprinkled in ;). My co-chairs and I wanted to explore how lifestyles, fundamental values, and even ways of expressing love differ between generations. Moreover, we also wanted to answer a question our audience of college students have probably asked themselves at some point: What if I didn't go to college?

And all that is what I am hoping everyone will see that all-important day: a show filled with surprises, laughter, maybe even tears--a form of the human experience condensed into two hours; the incredible efforts of nearly fifty people to educate the minds and touch the souls of those in the audience; and three individuals who want to share a story about what it means to them to be Filipino American.

Now that is a story worth writing.

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If you would like to learn more about Culture Night and donate to our show, please follow this link: gf.me/u/wqtwxn

I can also be contacted via my fancy schmancy new "Contact Me" page--but chances are if you're reading this, you have much more convenient ways to contact me. :)

Thank you!