Entry 02

Love You I Do Cover 2014

I was like 19 here, and I was still SOBRANG shy. I had just auditioned for UCBs PCN thinking I would get a minor role. I didn’t. I got the literal lead - singing, acting, and dancing triple as Malaya. And I was just coming to the realization that I had a large voice that I never knew how to use. Life prior had a habit of beating me down. I lost my mother to breast cancer, lived in abusive households, was taught to speak small if at all. But with music and the voices that I look up to, those women would never sing small. Whitney Houston, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson, Kristen Chenoweth, Deborah Cox, Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin. They stay in your mind and your heart because they wouldn’t dare shrink themselves for someone else’s comfort. My voice, shaky at times and still learning, begged to be expansive, too. And so I move forward to honor it and continue to treat it with the care and attention it deserves. No more shrinking or minimizing myself. Only expansion. 🦋