About Me
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Collage Key
1. The house is quiet, and the anticipating whispers follow. As the guitarist hits the first note, the warmth begins to set in. I scan the crowd to see the expected faces looking back at me. As our band begins the first funky riff, time is a blur as my friends and I play our hearts out, the crowd starting to dance with no inhibitions. The exchange of energy between me, my band members, and the crowd felt palpable in the atmosphere. An inimitable experience.
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2. Time travel to fourth grade where I was moving from Madison, Wisconsin to Houston, Texas. My stepdad put on a CD absentmindedly, and suddenly, the roar of the guitar and drums. Living with a single Korean mom, I had never experienced rock and roll music at all, and the rumbling beat was blowing my mind. Suddenly, I wasn’t nervous anymore. I had gotten the first taste of classic American rock and roll. New experiences weren’t frightening, they were exciting.
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3. “What do you mean we’re aliens mom?!”, I was shocked and in awe of the discovery that 5-year-old me had just made. “Yes Juho we are aliens from another planet and this is how we say hi in our alien language”, my mom said as she crossed her arms against her chest and bowed. I learned later of course that she was just pulling my leg… or was she? Of course, she was! But in the meantime, as I wonder, Parliament-Funkadelic will continue to show me the groove and the mothership connection!
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4. My mother and my father were both opera singers. In fact, they met at music school and fell in love with their shared passion for music. As a child, I would never hear any classic lullaby songs, and instead, the arias and operas that my mother would practice day and night. I would hear my mom from the room over as I drifted off to one of my personal favorites: La Traviata by Giuseppi Verdi
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5. I feel that there is a force out there guiding me in life, a higher power if you will. It feels good to be connected spiritually and to be listening to that aspect of yourself. God will guide me on a good path as long as I try and strive to exemplify the best version of myself.
6. Just like your first food discovery, whether it was your first chocolate lava cake or fresh buttered popcorn, first music discoveries are just as thrilling. I had never much listened to music before this point, but the funk and jazz of Herbie Hancock unlocked a whole new world of aural exhilaration.
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7. Calling a place home is a hard thing. For me, I was born in Seoul, Korea, immigrated to Madison, Wisconsin, and took off in Houston, Texas. To me, Texas is where I made my closest friends, got into a good college, and just like our basketball team, was the base where I could Rocket off to find my full potential. In the words of Texas Yondu from Guardians of the Galaxy, “[Seoul] may have been your father, boy, but he wasn’t your daddy”.
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8. “How did he do that?!”, me and my crewmates were in awe as we watched the Korean bboy team tearing it up on the dance floor. I watched their battles over and over, completely enthralled in their unique style and fluid teamwork. The team name is Morning of Owl, referring to how they have the gift of seeing what others cannot, for when others are asleep, the owl wakes.
9. “The marginal man… is condemned to live in two societies… his mind a crucible in which two cultures fuze”, Robert Ezra Park. As I have moved to the United States from a different country at a young age, I sometimes feel that I don’t quite fit into either culture. However, I feel that I am a bridge between both of these cultures and can lead my life to be an ideal cultural ambassador.
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10. Sitting in the middle of the page is a drawing of a dance style known as “puppet”, a subcategory of the funk style Popping. This style is emphasized by creating illusions that joints are controlled by marionette strings synced to the rhythm of the music. Through creating my dance and my life, I feel that certain aspects control my creative flow as if fate holds the marionette strings of my life in its frivolous grasp.