2022-05-16
1 小时 8 分钟I didn't quite realize that music was my path.
I didn't let myself realize my inner knowing knew.
I knew since I was really young, but I thought that life was basically composed of moments where you ignore that little voice that tells you to do something dangerous and just do the thing that is safer.
And so I just couldn't handle it anymore.
So have you ever asked yourself, who am I and what do I stand for?
Well, many of us do ask these questions, and when we do, it can be a catalyst that sets us on a path, even though we know it might disappoint those around us.
Yet all too often, even when that inner knowing is forcing us to pay attention to the signals, life can pull us in the direction of expectations versus innate expression and desire.
And we hesitate to follow our curiosity, our drive, our inner knowing of who we are and what really matters to us out of a fear that we might let down others, family, loved ones, people who have certain expectations about who we quote, should be or how we, quote, should live our lives and what we should center.
And as a result, we stay on course towards what we're supposed to do.
But it doesn't always have to be this way.
Sometimes choosing a new path is just what we need to honor our voice, culture, and family.
And this is why I'm so excited to share this conversation with Connie Lim, whose artist name is Milk, in this best of conversation.
So Milk rose to widespread attention after a video of an acapella performance of her song Quiet on the street at the 2017 women's march exploded into the public's consciousness, going viral and becoming embraced as an anthem for the movement.
And that moment and the impact and reach of the song led to a major record deal and collaborations as a songwriter that launched the career she'd been working to build for years.
But that career almost never happened.
Milk grew up in an enclave of LA, the child of immigrants from China, and was drawn to music from her earliest age.
She wrote her first song at seven years old and studied classical piano and opera.
Yet the pressure of intense perfectionism and the expectation that she'd eventually leave music behind to follow the family tradition into medicine, it led her into years of profound emotional struggle.
And eventually she hit a point in college where she decided it was time to choose herself over the expectations of others, as well as the burden of perfectionism that had caused so many years of suffering and harm.
And milk left college and went all in on music, performing as an independent artist for years, slowly building her name painstakingly before that fateful day in 2017 that changed everything.