"What do you really want to do with your life?" was the question I would often get when I expressed my confusion and frustration in graduate school studying classical voice. But I always hesitated to give them a full account of what I had in mind in fear of getting a response like, "Who do you think you are?" or "That would be such a waste of time. Give it up and start doing something more practical." But since about a year ago, I started to make more tangible connections between my dream and ways to accomplish it. And even though I still get raised-eyebrows of disapproval or skepticism from my relatives, I stand immovable in believing that I will achieve my dream. You may even call it destiny.
I have always known that I would lead an artistic life. But it took long, and tortuous detours for my amorphous wishes to finally crystallize into something definite and tangible. There were lots of disappointment, discouragement, tears, resentment, and doubt that accompanied this process and I am pretty sure they will come back to haunt me in the future. Regardless, I feel a sense of surety that this is my destiny, my offering to the alter of that Being whom I call God.
And this is my dream.
I will create, produce and perform works that give breath and life to forgotten history, especially the unrecognized and silenced voice of Korean women. To do that, I am going back to school to study ethnomusicology. I feel indebted to the Korean women of the past, especially my grandmothers, and I want to pay homage to those who paid the price for the privileges and freedom I enjoy today. I want to tell the stories of their quiet resilience and courage of their human spirit. In so doing, I want all of us to dig deep into the roots of our humanity to discover our common vulnerability and understand that with courage and love we can overcome our personal and national tragedies. I want people to feel that we are all the same, that we belong to the same human family however brief the thought may last.
I know this sounds lofty and idealistic but somewhere deep inside my core, I know I will do this. I just know I will.
You are so passionate about this that I am sure you will succeed. It might not be exactly as you envision it, and there may not be an obvious moment in which you say "Yes! I have done it!" but it will happen, I have no doubt. In fact, you are already doing it.
ReplyDeleteThank you. :) And yes, I feel I am on way to achieve it. I am sure there will be many moments of self-doubt and discouragement but I think it will be an awesome adventure. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat I find interesting in ethomusicology is how the instruments and music of the past influence the music of the present. For example, in Okinawa, you find rock bands with an electric sanshin (sort of like a shamisen, but shorter, and with a snakeskin resonator). In Naha, a music store will have sanshin hanging on the wall next to electric guitars. This is very cool.
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